This Devon family are one step closer to their dream of adopting a Chinese baby girl.

Paul and Felicity Tutton, who live at Copplestone, near Crediton, with their two sons, will soon be making the journey to collect their new daughter, Dang Fu Yi.

Their local newspaper last year highlighted the Tutton's bid to adopt a little girl after they had seen a documentary called The Dying Rooms about the plight of orphans in China.

China pressures couples strongly to restrict their families to one child and, as most families want a son and heir as 'insurance policies' to ensure their own future, daughters are often unwanted and abandoned by their parents.

Children with even the tiniest defects are also likely to be given up for adoption, as parents want a child who will be able to grow up and contribute to the family economy.

The Tuttons went through a protracted interview and selection process and British social services are content that they can go ahead and adopt.

All the papers were last year sent off to the authorities in China and the pair then had to wait to hear back.

Last week, they had a call from the Department of Health in London to tell them that the documents had all been sent through.

Felicity and Paul then faced a nail-biting wait to see who had been selected as their new daughter.

"We knew it was coming because they said they'd sent it recorded delivery. It was very nerve-wracking opening it, to see just who had been selected," said Paul.

"It's a little girl called Dang Fu Yi. She was born on the fourth of August last year and comes from Szechwan, which is the province next to Tibet."

Dang Fu Yi, who will probably come to be known as Elizabeth Grace Fu Yi, was left abandoned on the steps of a hospital when she was just five days old.

A medical report dated in October says she is a bit thin after her ordeal but otherwise fit and healthy.

Paul and Felicity have sent off their acceptance of the agreement and now wait to hear from the Chinese as to when they can expect to get permission for the baby to travel.

The couple will then fly to China and go through another round of medical examinations and form-filling before they will finally be able to bring their new baby home.

The Tuttons had thought that their family was complete after the birth of their younger son, Dominic, who is three.

But the documentary graphically illustrated the plight of thousand of youngsters and so, encouraged by some friends, they decided to do something positive to help.

"We never really considered adopting a child from this country," said Felicity.

"We didn't think that, at our ages, we would be able to adopt a baby and we didn't want to have an older child, as we felt that might disrupt Christopher and Dominic.

"But if anything, the Chinese tend to prefer older couples adopting as they value the experience that they've had."

The adoption itself will be carried out in a Chinese court in a procedure recognised by the British authorities, so their new baby can travel back to Britain on a Chinese passport.

Paul said: "The first thing we're likely to have to do is to take her to the hospital, as lots of babies have things wrong with them.

"More often than not, it's something like an ear infection or a chest infection that has gone untreated.

"I suppose the other worry is that there is a more serious health problem that doesn't become apparent until later in life.

"But that is always a risk, in your own children as well as in an adopted child."

Children who have spent their first months in an over-crowded and under-funded orphanage have often missed out on much of the attention that a child being brought up by parents would be given.

They are frequently small for their age as they have not received the nourishment that they need for full, healthy development.

Also, their speech and co-ordination skills are often not as developed as would normally be expected.

"Apparently they catch up quickly," said Felicity. "They go through a growth spurt when they're being well-fed and tend to catch up quickly. "Even older children who have learned to speak Chinese will learn to speak English within a matter of weeks. "It's almost as though they know that they've been given a second chance and they grab it with both hands."

They are now looking forward to the challenges of bringing up a Chinese baby in Mid-Devon and trying to let her know about her own background and culture, while making her feel perfectly at home.

"We've talked to a lot of people. We are going to make her a picture book with photographs telling her where she's come from," Felicity said.

"We have to accept that we may have a child who, when she reaches 18, decides she wants to go back to Beijing.

"What is more likely, though, is that she'll want to go back on holiday and see the place that she's come from and then come back to be with her family here.

The Dying Rooms Trust

Used courtesy of the Exeter Express and Echo