The Story of "YouYou"

My husband and I were called to adopt in September of 2005 as we were praying about how we might want to expand our family. We were blessed with 2 biological children(one in 2003 and one in 2004) but we knew we wanted more children should the Lord allow. We were in church one Sunday morning when Aaron's dad began praying that Christian families would open their hearts to adopt the many orphans in Nepal. We had not made it to Sunday School that morning, so we did not hear the guest speaker from Nepal talk about his ministry to the orphans in Nepal, but as Aaron's dad was praying I honestly felt like God said to me "You should be one of those families". During the prayer, Aaron put his arm around me (which may not sound unusual, but he rarely does this during church). As soon as the prayer was over I looked at Aaron and
whispered, "Maybe we are supposed to adopt one of those children". I will never forget the look on his face and the words that came out of his mouth. He said, "I was just praying that if God was speaking to you about adopting a child like he was to me, that you would bring up the topic to me". Well, that is exactly what I had done! Praise the Lord for this confirmation!

After much prayer and research we felt like we were being led to adopt from China. We finally started the paperwork in June of 2006 (which later became a significant date as this was the month our little girl was born). By December of 2006 my husband and I were both in agreement that we wanted to adopt a child that had some type of medical need. After a few delays our dossier was logged in with the CCAA on March 2, 2007 with a request that we be matched with a child with a heart condition. While we waited for the CCAA to make a direct match for us, we were also eligible to be matched with a child from our agency's list of children with medical needs. We waited and waited, for what at thetime seemed like forever. Our agency went from getting lists of children every few months, to only receiving a list two times in a year. Then in early 2008 we learned that our agency would soon be given access to the new "shared list", which was a list of 100's of children that lots of different adoption agency's had access to at the same time.

On Monday, August 4th, 2008 we received the phone call that would forever change our lives. Our wonderful social worker called and I remember the first thing she asked me was "Are you at home?" I knew then that this was an important phone call. She told me that she had been praying over the file of a child and she felt like she was supposed to call me. She then proceeded to tell me a few of the details like, it was a girl, she was 2, and she had a heart condition - and then she asked me if I wanted to lock the file (meaning no other family could review the file and we would have 48 hours to submit a letter of intent stating that we wanted to adopt her). I said "Yes, of course!". We talked for a few more minutes and then she told me she would be sending me the entire file through email and that I should go ahead and call my husband. I hung up and called him. My sweet husband says he knew something was up as soon as I started talking - he could just hear it in my voice. I told him our social worker had locked a file for us, it was a girl, she was 2, and she had a heart condition...and his exact words were, "Okay, when can we go get her!"

The next 2 days were a blur as we talked to different doctors and tried to quickly gather all of the necessary items so that we could officially ask China if we could be this child's parent's. This was an exciting time, but also a little scary as there were several things in her file that were unclear. We both felt at peace about the decision to proceed though so our Letter of Intent was sent on August 6th (my youngest son's 4th birthday and first day of preschool). We waited, not so patiently at times, for China to give us Pre-approval but because of the Olympics it took a few more days than we expected. Finally on September 5th, aprox 4 weeks after we saw our daughter's face for the first time, we received pre approval and were able to announce it to all of our friends and family that "WE HAD A DAUGHTER!!!"

Once we received pre-approval we were given permission to send our new daughter a care package and then we waited, for our agency to receive an update. During this time I prayed and wondered each day whether or not she was being well fed and cared for. I wondered about her little heart, both physically and emotionally. Then in early October, actually two months to the day that we first saw our daughter's picture, we were given another gift through our wonderful social worker. She called to tell us that she had an email address of and English speaking person who was somehow connected to our daughter's orphanage and we had been given permission to
contact her. Amazingly enough, we learned through this email coorespondence that our daughter was not in a typical orphanage anymore. She had been transferred to a place called True Children's Home when she was 11 months old. We learned that she was being well cared for and that she had been moved to foster care earlier that year. But even more amazing, we learned that this English speaking person's sister actually lived in our town! She was even married to the pastor of the church that my husband and I got married in 10 years earlier! For two months I had been worrying that with each passing day our little girl's heart condition might be making her sicker and sicker. For two months I had been wondering whether or not I would get any more pictures or updates on our daughter before we travel. For two months I had been praying that somehow, someway, in a manner that only God could ordain, that this precious little one's heart and mind would be prepared so that when she met us she would know that we were safe, and that we would love her forever. Well God showed up big - I got many, many pictures and updates on our daugher, she was receiving great medical care, and she was being prepared to meet us. Right then I felt like He whispered in my ear, "See my daughter...I have been with you both all along."

We do not know why our daughter's paperwork did not mention that she had been sent from her original orphanage to True Children's Home. But we definitly know that it taught us to trust Him even more. Our Faith was increased during those two months as each time the worries and doubts crept in we had to turn it all over to our Heavenly Father and He simply said...trust me.

Our trip of a lifetime took place at the beginning of January 2009 as we travelled to China to meet our precious "YouYou". She is just perfect for our family and we enjoyed getting to know her better every day.

We arrived home on January 22nd to begin our life at home as a family of five! On February 6th we had our first appointment with a pediatric cardiologist and we were able to learn a lot more about YouYou's heart condition. She has several problems with her heart, but the two most threatening issues are a moderate to large VSD and Ventricular Inverson (also called Congenitally Corrected Transposition of the Great Arteries, or L-type Transposition). We are scheduled for a heart cath on Wednesday February 25th so that the Dr.'s can determine whether or not she is a candidate for heart surgery to close the VSD. They are hopeful that the pressures in her lungs are not too high so they have already gotten her on the schedule for Open Heart Surgery the following week (Wednesday, March 4th). The VSD surgery will greatly improve YouYou's health but it will not fix the problem with her ventricles being reversed. We are praying that technology will improve before she needs to have this corrected because the only surgery to fix this right now is highly controversial and risky. But we know the Great Physician personally so we put our trust in Him!

We plan on updating this blog with all of YouYou's medical information, especially during her heart cath and surgery. Thank you for standing in prayer alongside us. May God receive all Glory and Honor...