So now that the dust has settled, somewhat, let us tell you what’s been going on!
Four weeks ago, on December 2nd, I sat down at home to log onto my computer when my phone rang. At 2:49pm. Never in a million years would I have expected our adoption agency to be calling us. Their ONLY reason to call at this stage is to let you know you have a child's file to review. No. Way. We were only 2 1/2 months in of the expected 7-9 month wait for a young girl. I will never forget where I was standing and what was said on that phone call. Kind of like I’ll never forget the moments after reading a positive pregnancy test. Our agency said they had a file of a little girl for us to review. And I said…ARE YOU KIDDING?? She said, “well, we don’t call you just to chit chat.” :) I told her I needed to sit down and then I asked if I was really talking to HER…the referral lady…on the phone. She laughed. I cried even before she finished telling me about this little one….she’s just 1 1/2 years old, her name is Yan Xin Chun, she is smiling in the pictures and looks very spunky and feisty. I laughed. She would need to be spunky and feisty to live in this household!
I was in complete shock and just kept thinking, Denny!…Denny is out of town! She continued to tell me about this little girl who looked so joyful, full of smiles, born on June 10, 2014, and has visible finger and toe deformities. She asked if we would like to review her file and I said YES! It was 2:55pm. I remember this because I was supposed to be picking my kids up from school by now! I texted my friend Rachel, while on the phone with Holt, and she thankfully took care of the big kids. After I hung up with our agency, I called Denny and told him we had received a referral of a little girl. He laughed. Hands shaking, I kept hitting refresh on my email to see if the information had come through and FINALLY,
2 minutes later, there it was.
A picture that had a sweet little face who was wearing a red silk shirt, more photographs and several pages of Chinese characters. I was yelling to Denny that “this is all in Chinese…I can’t read Chinese!!…what does this say???” Of course this information was translated in another attachment I quickly found which was the medical review report…her measurements, weight, blood work, vaccination record, X-Ray report, and her examination upon admission. She only weighed 5 1/2 pounds when she was abandoned. Reading about her little body on the day she was left was hard. Adoption is hard. Abandonment is hard. God is so good. He has never left her or abandoned her.
I continued to read about her growth over the first year of her life and how even though she is small, she is feisty! Then I read about her routine and sleep schedule. The box for “deep sleeper” was checked. PRAISE GOD!! :)
I then got on the phone with Vanderbilt’s International Adoption Clinic. We had chosen to partner with them to review any files we received. The contact said she would page the doctor and get her the file ASAP and would call me back to let me know when we would have a conference call. A chicken with it’s head cut off…that’s what I was like the rest of the evening…meeting my kids for Wednesday night church, trying to get internet access at church in case she called, “participating” in small group Bible study…well at least I was physically there…but my clothes probably didn’t even match! The contact person called and said the doctor would be able to talk to us the next day sometime before 2:30pm and to make sure I had my phone handy. The rest of that night was a blur other than Denny was still out of town until the next day and I would need to conference him into the call.
The doctor called us at noon the next day and she reviewed the file with both of us and discussed in length her development and this little girl’s orthopedic issues (more about this later). During this call she had mentioned a great doctor who was specialized not only in Pediatric Orthopedics but also Pediatric Hand Surgery…which this little one would need. She said he had recently left Vanderbilt and was working at a hospital in Texas. Even though Denny and I weren’t in the same room…I knew we were both thinking the same thing…
we need to find this doctor! Denny asked for the doctor’s name as we finished our call with Vanderbilt. We knew we needed to understand this little girl’s needs better so by the next morning Denny had tracked down the doctor (we will call him Dr. Chris) and decided to call the hospital where he works. Denny was prepared to leave him a message in hopes he would call back this random adopting dad who he has never heard of. Well, God is bigger than that. When Denny called this huge hospital and asked for Dr. Chris, his call was transferred…and Dr. Chris actually answered the phone! Denny was stunned and stumbled around for a bit never expecting to actually speak with him. At first, Dr. Chris seemed a bit standoffish but when Denny explained we needed help reviewing a file of a child in China, his attitude completely changed. He told Denny he was booked for the next two days but would Monday be ok for him to get back to us with a medical review of this little girl’s file?!?
This is another moment in this process where God has shown us His hand in this. He has gone before us and prepared the way. Since that day, we have received several emails back and forth with Dr. Chris giving us medical advice and answering all of our questions. And you know WE have a lot of those. :)
On that day we also put in a request for an update from the orphanage. We requested x-rays, a video showing her movement, updated growth measurements and photographs. We were told we most likely wouldn’t receive any x-rays. Over that weekend (my birthday) I really wanted to know what the Chinese characters of her name means. On Monday, I sent another email to Holt and told them I knew this wasn't an important question but if they could also ask the orphanage how she got her name or what it meant. And then we waited. Refreshed my email 500 times a day. Kept busy with Christmas activities. Our agency said it can take 3-4 weeks to get the update from the orphanage. I called to check in, of course, at the end of week 1. Nothing yet. Week 3 of waiting was the week of Christmas. Once Monday was here I figured we wouldn’t hear anything until after Christmas since they would be closed for several days. So I only refreshed my email 20 times that day. And at 12:30pm it was there in my inbox…an update from the orphanage! I decided I would wait to open it until Denny could come home from work. A couple of hours later we sat on the couch together and were amazed. We had received everything we had prayed for. Actual photographs of her X-rays and a video of her…showing that she IS WALKING! Praise God! And she’s walking well…considering she’s in an orphanage and is in her bed a lot of the day. We went back to our village of doctors and let them know the updated information. They too were surprised at how well she is walking. The best advice wasn’t from a doctor but from a wise woman who reminded us that all of this “information” and what-ifs really doesn’t matter because if she’s yours you will do what needs to be done to care for her, just like with your other children. Honestly, we didn’t learn anything new “medically” speaking from our update. But what I did learn is that she is our precious little jewel. Denny on the other hand, knew it from day one. That night, my thoughts kept going to the pictures of her smiling and I just kept thinking, this little one is so full of joy!
The next day I called our agency back and told them she was our little girl! We rejoiced on the phone and then discussed what paperwork would happen next. It was all very surreal. I mentioned that I didn't see anything in the update about the meaning of her name. Unfortunately, they had already sent the list of questions to the orphanage when they got my email about that. I told her I really had hoped to know the meaning of her given name. She gave me a few suggestions of how to find that information out and then quickly said, "Oh wait, there's someone here at the office who just walked by who can translate Chinese characters if you wouldn't mind holding on, I could ask her?" When she came back on the call she said, "well, I've got the meaning of your little girl's name ...her name means "Pure Joy." God's gift of Gracie has already brought so much joy!
Four weeks ago, on December 2nd, I sat down at home to log onto my computer when my phone rang. At 2:49pm. Never in a million years would I have expected our adoption agency to be calling us. Their ONLY reason to call at this stage is to let you know you have a child's file to review. No. Way. We were only 2 1/2 months in of the expected 7-9 month wait for a young girl. I will never forget where I was standing and what was said on that phone call. Kind of like I’ll never forget the moments after reading a positive pregnancy test. Our agency said they had a file of a little girl for us to review. And I said…ARE YOU KIDDING?? She said, “well, we don’t call you just to chit chat.” :) I told her I needed to sit down and then I asked if I was really talking to HER…the referral lady…on the phone. She laughed. I cried even before she finished telling me about this little one….she’s just 1 1/2 years old, her name is Yan Xin Chun, she is smiling in the pictures and looks very spunky and feisty. I laughed. She would need to be spunky and feisty to live in this household!
I was in complete shock and just kept thinking, Denny!…Denny is out of town! She continued to tell me about this little girl who looked so joyful, full of smiles, born on June 10, 2014, and has visible finger and toe deformities. She asked if we would like to review her file and I said YES! It was 2:55pm. I remember this because I was supposed to be picking my kids up from school by now! I texted my friend Rachel, while on the phone with Holt, and she thankfully took care of the big kids. After I hung up with our agency, I called Denny and told him we had received a referral of a little girl. He laughed. Hands shaking, I kept hitting refresh on my email to see if the information had come through and FINALLY,
2 minutes later, there it was.
A picture that had a sweet little face who was wearing a red silk shirt, more photographs and several pages of Chinese characters. I was yelling to Denny that “this is all in Chinese…I can’t read Chinese!!…what does this say???” Of course this information was translated in another attachment I quickly found which was the medical review report…her measurements, weight, blood work, vaccination record, X-Ray report, and her examination upon admission. She only weighed 5 1/2 pounds when she was abandoned. Reading about her little body on the day she was left was hard. Adoption is hard. Abandonment is hard. God is so good. He has never left her or abandoned her.
I continued to read about her growth over the first year of her life and how even though she is small, she is feisty! Then I read about her routine and sleep schedule. The box for “deep sleeper” was checked. PRAISE GOD!! :)
I then got on the phone with Vanderbilt’s International Adoption Clinic. We had chosen to partner with them to review any files we received. The contact said she would page the doctor and get her the file ASAP and would call me back to let me know when we would have a conference call. A chicken with it’s head cut off…that’s what I was like the rest of the evening…meeting my kids for Wednesday night church, trying to get internet access at church in case she called, “participating” in small group Bible study…well at least I was physically there…but my clothes probably didn’t even match! The contact person called and said the doctor would be able to talk to us the next day sometime before 2:30pm and to make sure I had my phone handy. The rest of that night was a blur other than Denny was still out of town until the next day and I would need to conference him into the call.
The doctor called us at noon the next day and she reviewed the file with both of us and discussed in length her development and this little girl’s orthopedic issues (more about this later). During this call she had mentioned a great doctor who was specialized not only in Pediatric Orthopedics but also Pediatric Hand Surgery…which this little one would need. She said he had recently left Vanderbilt and was working at a hospital in Texas. Even though Denny and I weren’t in the same room…I knew we were both thinking the same thing…
we need to find this doctor! Denny asked for the doctor’s name as we finished our call with Vanderbilt. We knew we needed to understand this little girl’s needs better so by the next morning Denny had tracked down the doctor (we will call him Dr. Chris) and decided to call the hospital where he works. Denny was prepared to leave him a message in hopes he would call back this random adopting dad who he has never heard of. Well, God is bigger than that. When Denny called this huge hospital and asked for Dr. Chris, his call was transferred…and Dr. Chris actually answered the phone! Denny was stunned and stumbled around for a bit never expecting to actually speak with him. At first, Dr. Chris seemed a bit standoffish but when Denny explained we needed help reviewing a file of a child in China, his attitude completely changed. He told Denny he was booked for the next two days but would Monday be ok for him to get back to us with a medical review of this little girl’s file?!?
This is another moment in this process where God has shown us His hand in this. He has gone before us and prepared the way. Since that day, we have received several emails back and forth with Dr. Chris giving us medical advice and answering all of our questions. And you know WE have a lot of those. :)
On that day we also put in a request for an update from the orphanage. We requested x-rays, a video showing her movement, updated growth measurements and photographs. We were told we most likely wouldn’t receive any x-rays. Over that weekend (my birthday) I really wanted to know what the Chinese characters of her name means. On Monday, I sent another email to Holt and told them I knew this wasn't an important question but if they could also ask the orphanage how she got her name or what it meant. And then we waited. Refreshed my email 500 times a day. Kept busy with Christmas activities. Our agency said it can take 3-4 weeks to get the update from the orphanage. I called to check in, of course, at the end of week 1. Nothing yet. Week 3 of waiting was the week of Christmas. Once Monday was here I figured we wouldn’t hear anything until after Christmas since they would be closed for several days. So I only refreshed my email 20 times that day. And at 12:30pm it was there in my inbox…an update from the orphanage! I decided I would wait to open it until Denny could come home from work. A couple of hours later we sat on the couch together and were amazed. We had received everything we had prayed for. Actual photographs of her X-rays and a video of her…showing that she IS WALKING! Praise God! And she’s walking well…considering she’s in an orphanage and is in her bed a lot of the day. We went back to our village of doctors and let them know the updated information. They too were surprised at how well she is walking. The best advice wasn’t from a doctor but from a wise woman who reminded us that all of this “information” and what-ifs really doesn’t matter because if she’s yours you will do what needs to be done to care for her, just like with your other children. Honestly, we didn’t learn anything new “medically” speaking from our update. But what I did learn is that she is our precious little jewel. Denny on the other hand, knew it from day one. That night, my thoughts kept going to the pictures of her smiling and I just kept thinking, this little one is so full of joy!
The next day I called our agency back and told them she was our little girl! We rejoiced on the phone and then discussed what paperwork would happen next. It was all very surreal. I mentioned that I didn't see anything in the update about the meaning of her name. Unfortunately, they had already sent the list of questions to the orphanage when they got my email about that. I told her I really had hoped to know the meaning of her given name. She gave me a few suggestions of how to find that information out and then quickly said, "Oh wait, there's someone here at the office who just walked by who can translate Chinese characters if you wouldn't mind holding on, I could ask her?" When she came back on the call she said, "well, I've got the meaning of your little girl's name ...her name means "Pure Joy." God's gift of Gracie has already brought so much joy!