New Photo!

I just had to share this updated photo of our sweet girl.  Our agency speculates it was taken last Friday (10-16).  She is still only at or under the 10th percentile in many areas of growth.  I must confess that when I first saw this photo I got worried for Lucy.  She just looks so thin compared to her earlier pictures.  Brian has reassured me that as soon as she gets home he will be plumping her up with a steady diet of baby food and weight lifting :) I have to continue to trust that God is protecting her and will bring her home soon. 

I have joined this wonderful Yahoo group full of other families who have adopted their daughters from the same orphanage as Lucy.  I have gained some priceless information, including the fact that it is quite possible that Lucy is in foster care and not actually at this orphanage.  China likes to keep lots of things secretive, so it is hard to know.  But it appears that this is one institution that has an abundance of foster parents helping out with the girls.  If this is the case we would be ecstatic!  This would mean that she is receiving much more individualized attention.

We anticipate that the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) will receive our acceptance letters next Monday.  It will then be 6-8 weeks from this date that we should travel.  I will keep you posted...

Yellow Outfit, White Dots

This is what our sweet little girl was wearing when she was found outside the hospital gates.  Her birth parents had wrapped her in a baby blanket.  "Her hair was thick and her skin was fair."  She weighed 6.8 pounds.  It has been estimated that she was found on the day she was born, December 30th, 2008. 

The Yifeng Social Welfare Institute, where she currently lives, is pictured above. They report that she "loves music" and will "lie in her crib quietly and enjoy herself."  They also say that when she was four months old she "became more beautiful than ever," "was happy every day," and that "she is such a lovely girl and everybody loves her." From what I have read online about this orphanage, each child has a "foster parent" in the institute.  Families who have brought their children home from this orphanage felt that the caretakers genuinely cared for the children and that they were well cared for.  This is what we hope and pray for. We have had a local pediatrician who specializes in international adoption (she has children of her own adopted from China) review the medical charts that we received from China;  she thinks that developmentally everything looks good.

We think of our little Lucy constantly and cannot wait for the day that she will become a part of our forever family.  God is so good!

Lu Qie!!!

Today was a spectacular day!   Yes, we got the phone call!   I should have known when I woke up this morning and saw that I had left Lucy's little angel light on all night in her room (I have never done this) that good news was coming today.  Melissa, from our agency, called me at work today at 2:55 to tell me that our little girl had finally been matched with us and the paperwork and photos had arrived! Melissa was so patient with me through my tears and necessary need for repeating of information;  the feelings that overcame me were beyond explanation. God is good!

Her name is Lu Qie (pronounced like Lou Chee) Zhuang. Brian and I do not think that the similarities in her given name in China, and the name we had chosen for her many years ago, is coincidence or irony.  Now we know more than ever that God's intervention is divine and beyond our understanding. The saying "before I created you I knew you" comes to mind.  How wonderful that there will not have to be a big adjustment for our little girl when she hears her name! 

She is just precious!  I cannot quit looking at her pictures.  I imagine this is how it is for all parents when they see their child for the first time.  She was born December 30, 2008 and is currently in The Social Welfare Institute in the Jiangxi Province.   If all goes well then we should travel the beginning of December, meaning she will be home in time for Christmas and her first birthday!!  Please continue to pray for safe and quick travels in bringing our little girl home.     

Ladybugs

Last weekend Brian and I were at the Sunflower Festival. We stood in a field full of sunflowers;   practically every sunflower had a ladybug ...or two...or three...on it.  For those of you who don't know, ladybugs are seen as a sign of good luck in the Chinese adoption community.  International adoption programs began growing rapidly in the late 1990s as people learned of the many benefits of Chinese adoption.  One fall the ladybug population grew unusually large in Guangzhou, China.  (Guangzhou is a necessary stop for all Americans adopting from China.) This large ladybug population explosion was thought to be a lucky omen for the many adopting families flowing into China.   From this incident the legend has grown, so that now ladybugs represent happy adoptive families being united with beautiful children in China.  So, I am choosing to believe that all of those ladybugs surrounding us were a sign that this is the week!   China is back from their week long holiday (celebrating their 60 years since the revolution) and the rumor is they will be signing off on referrals. Keep praying, and I will keep you all posted!