Love Story

There are many more excited adventures to share from our trip, but I
am going to fast forward a bit to share with you the best one of all….
When we arrived at our guest house for our adoption agency (CHSFS-E),
Kevin and I were so excited to finally be at this stage of the
journey. I opened the door to our room and saw a toddler bed all set
up for our daughter. Now the tears began to fall – it was really
happening! On the bed was a packet of information and name tags for
us with our daughter’s name “Shetu” (pronounced Sheh –tew), which we
have learned to pronounce correctly since being here. It is a
beautiful name, especially now that we know how to say it correctly.
It means that she was her mother’s sweet flower aroma because her
mother loved her very much.

The children’s center is located in an old mansion and is truly a
lovely place for an orphanage. The staff led all the adopting
families downstairs to a large open room filled with sofas and chairs.
We would first have an orientation before meeting our children. One
more period of waiting. My mind said to sit and wait, but my heart
was telling me to run upstairs and find my baby.

After the orientation they called one family at a time to go meet
their child so that the entire event could be filmed by their media
team. As each family came back down the stair holding their children
the waiting room was filled with tears of joy. What a blessing to be
a witness to nine other families meeting their children for the first
time. Then the social worker said the words I was longing to her,
“Shetu”. I jumped out of my chair and ran to the stairs taking them
as fast as possible. Up to the fourth floor we climbed to the room
where she lives. We walked through the door and immediately I saw her
sitting on the floor. We went over to her and smothered her in
kisses, swept her up in my arms and then carried her back downstairs.
The remaining time we had with her that morning was difficult. She
cried and quickly fell asleep. The whole process was very
overwhelming for all three of us. Once she awoke, she clung to us but
refused to look us in the eye. Anytime we tried to mover her, touch
her hands or feet or give her a toy she would cry. It was heart
breaking. We only had about 1.5 hours with her that morning and then
she went back to her nanny.

Our next stop was at the CHSFS office to view her life DVD. This is
one of the reasons we decided to go with this agency. We watched the
DVD showing where she was born and an interview with her birth mother.
I don’t know if anything can prepare you for something like this – it
was very difficult to watch but we are so thankful to have it. Faith
looks a lot like her birth mother and has much of the same character,
very strong and very beautiful.

After this meeting we were able to go back and be with Faith some
more. This was very healing to see her after watching her DVD. She
still cried a lot but seemed to be not quite as scared of us by the
time we left to go back to the guest house.

The next day we spent the morning at the care center with our
daughter. She was sitting on the floor when we walked into her room.
I got down on the floor and when she saw me she began to cry. I quickly
scooped her up and headed towards the mirror on the wall. When she
saw herself she smiled and then giggled! Kevin and I were overjoyed,
we had gotten her to smile. This is a difficult process for her to
have to say goodbye one more time and reattach to new people. In
addition she has a terrible cold, diaper rash and diarrhea. We are
thankful for the times when she is content and know that it will take
many weeks to earn her trust. This morning we were able to pray over
her for Jesus to surround her and give her peace.

We spent some time this day also playing with all the other children.
Faith especially likes watching them play and listening to them sing.
Kevin held her for awhile and she clung onto him. It is a beautiful
sight to see the two of them together. He told me that he now cannot
imagine not having a daughter – she has his heart. Faith began tot
play with the buckles on daddy’s backpack – the first time we have
seen her play with something. Then Daddy showed her some flowering
bushes and she reached out to touch them. Progress! Inside we
stopped in front of a door plastered in children’s pictures. I began
pointing things out and saying their English name. Then the most
amazing thing happened….she pointed at a picture of a fox and babbled
some sounds. Kevin and I were both fighting the tears at this point.
Her voice is so sweet and this was our first time to hear it. She is
very sensitive and her face is full of expression. When she is
unhappy she first sticks out her bottom lip, the furrows her brow and
next comes the cry showing her two bottom teeth and the big crocodile
tears. Absolutely adorable, even when crying. She has quite the
attitude and spunk which has made her a favorite at the care center.
If you scrunch up your nose and make a sniffing sound, she will do
the same. All t he nannies play this game with her. We have finally
gotten her to play this game with us also.

She now is beginning to warm up to us and actually gets upset when
someone tries to take her away. We have learned that she can stand
up, wave goodbye, give high five and babble some words. She loves
music. She is extremely cautious but once she feels comfortable she
is the life of the party. Today we get to take her from the care
center for the last time and forever into our arms. We are beyond
ready.

Many more stories to tell but I must go for now. Please continue to
pray for us. We love all of you very much!