Seeking our new daughter.

Our family is in the uncomfortable stage of our adoption where we are looking at the children currently available and trying to decide whether one of them is our daughter. It is a kind of surreal process - accepting or rejecting children based on a birthdate, a photo, and limited, possibly incorrect information. This is not how it should be - every one of these kids should have a loving, godly family to care for them. But it is where we find ourselves.

For months before our paperwork was done, there was one little girl who kept catching my attention on the photo listing for our agency. Her picture was darling and determined looking, and she was listed as having a deformity of her lower limbs. A couple weeks before we were ready to start pulling files her picture disappeared from our agency's list. I asked about it, and they said it had been transferred to another agency.

Several weeks ago her photo showed up again on an advocacy group I frequent. The family that was considering her decided she was not theirs. We have requested her file, and found out that she is 2 1/2 and that her lower legs are indeed deformed - unusable. The best case scenario is that she will need amputation and prosthetic legs. Worst case is that she will be in a wheelchair permanently.

We have requested more information from China, and have found that she is now walking on her knees. She seems developmentally on target, but may not be available to us through our agency.

We are left with the question: "Is this little one our daughter?"

Will you join us in praying about this? If we feel God is saying she is our daughter, we will do everything we can to lock her file and bring her home. If not, we will pray that her parents find her soon.

I can't post any identifying information at this point, so here is a picture of her little hand holding something - a ball? an orange?


There is so much we don't know about this little girl, but then this decision can't be based purely on what we know. If it was, we would never adopt any child. But God is intimately involved in this process, and He speaks. Please pray that we hear Him clearly.