We've Found Our New Daughter!!

We are extremely excited to announce the newest addition to our family!!

We chose Mei Lin from our agency's waiting child list. She will be one in January and has a minor heart defect, otherwise she is said to be healthy.

Unfortunately we can't post her information yet, but hope to by next month.

Please pray with us for little Mei Lin as she waits for her family. We are hoping to travel by March '07. God is so good!

Here’s how the last week has unfolded.....

Our agency posted its Waiting Child list on Friday (11.10.06). A waiting Child list is a list of children with special needs and the process for adopting one of these children is entirely different than the non-special needs adoption (Miyah was NSN).

Well, there were many beautiful children on the list with very minor special needs, but I was immediately drawn to a tiny little girl with big dark eyes and the sweetest little lips. I clicked on her photo for more information to find that she had an atrial septum defect ("ASD" is a hole in her heart) and tricuspid incompetence. To be completely honest, heart disease was a gray area I wasn't certain we would consider...until I saw this little girl. For some reason all apprehension left me and I just knew she was to be our Mei Lin.

So, when Pat asked about the waiting child list I told him about the little girl with the sweet face and heart defect. I was stunned when he said, “Well, that JUST means she may need surgery.” Just?

And that’s what I said to him, “JUST....doesn’t that mean like, open heart surgery?” I was encouraged and extremely surprised by his response, but we both knew we needed to do a lot of praying before we made such an important decision. Pat lost his brother to cancer when he was in high school and he knows the toll terminal illness takes on a family, so he wanted to proceed cautiously.

We had until Monday morning at 10 am to decide if we were going to put in a request to review her file.

We discussed it at dinner Sunday night and as we drove home from dinner Steven Curtis Chapman was on the radio talking about National Adoption Month. He mentioned that his third daughter adopted from China was on a special needs list with a heart defect but when they brought her home she was perfectly healthy. I couldn’t help but give Pat a little nudge. A sign from God? Absolutely! Isn’t God amazing?

By Monday morning we had both agreed that we would look at the child’s file, but figured it was a long-shot. It’s a crazy race to be first to review a file...kind of like trying to get an Xbox 360 on the day after Thanksgiving (bad analogy, but you get the idea).

At 9:50 Monday morning, I was poised in front of the computer, praying and waiting for 10:00 so I could click on the link and post our request. By 10:00 there were so many people attempting to request files that the server was bogged down and sooo excrutiatingly slow. When we tried to submit the form it would say “website is busy, please try again”. Arghh! Even though I knew God was in control I wasn't feeling it at that moment and severe frustration was taking hold of me. By 10:10 I finally got a confirmation and then our computer began crashing (something it’s been doing often lately – double arghh).

I stepped away from the computer and told God it was all up to him now; close the door if she isn't to be ours and help me to be okay with that.

A half hour later I got the call from my agency saying we were first in line to review C410’s (her number) file. I was stunned, laughing and crying at the same time!

The rest of that week we completed the translation of her medical records (thanks, Richard!) and had them reviewed by the pediatric cardiologists. With Pat out of town we had only scant moments to talk about this big decision, but we both prayed constantly for clarity.

By the end of the week we had made our decision to adopt her!

And we've received excellent reports on her medical. Two cardiologists confirmed that she has very minor congenital heart disease. Her medical exam and echocardiogram were done at 4 months of age. At that time she had a 3 mm hole in her atrial septum, which is quite small and may close on its own if it hasn’t already. There is a small possibility that she would need surgery to close it, but even that could possibly be done without open heart surgery.

Of course, we have to be prepared that her condition could be more serious than her medical report states, but we're praying for her complete healing.

We know she was destined to be ours and we can’t wait to bring her home.

We have so much to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!