Saturday marked 3 years since we received Ellie’s referral. She loves being held close while I explain how this day – and others, like the day we met her – unfolded for us:
Ryan received a call from our adoption specialist with specifics about Ellie’s name, age, and where she was living. I was at Target running errands when he called me with the fantastic news. I jotted down “Guo YuDian” and “Oct. 23″ and “Beihai SWI” on the side of an envelope. Ryan said, “I googled her orphanage – it is a Half the Sky Orphanage. Gina, she is in a safe place.”
I then floated (on cloud 9) over to the diaper aisle and stocked up on a bunch of diapers, wipes, baby soap, etc!
The next day, we had an appointment with our adoption specialist to get her picture and more details and to go over some paperwork. The moment we saw her face was almost magical. Yes, this was her, this was the face of our new baby girl. It was every parents’ ah-ha moment. Finally, her face.
Even though, we knew she was in “a good orphanage” – The face of this child was so beautiful and yet so bittersweet. This child needed a family…a mama and a daddy who would wrap her up in love and erase the emptiness in her eyes. A family who would tell her about the grace of God and his perfect plan for her despite a broken beginning.
So once again on Saturday morning, we all sat down and watched a video that Ryan made shortly after we returned home from China. Her story has some hard parts – they are even sometimes painful. I fervently pray that she will embrace the good parts, the redemptive parts and will persevere in triumph over a broken beginning. Her middle name is Grace because of God’s promise in 2 Corinthians 12:9 when he says, “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
