How God gave us our beautiful girl!

When we first started this adoption journey, we wanted to bring our daughter home as soon as possible. The idea of waiting over 2 years to adopt was hard to accept. So throughout the entire paper chase process we prayed that God would make it clear when and who needed to be a part of our family. We were very open to the idea of adopting a child with mild special needs. Due to the ages of our other children (3, 2), we really wouldn't be able to give a child who had significant needs the attention and care that they would need. Also, according to the new Chinese regulations, there had to be at least 12 months in between the ages of our youngest and our newest! That is very limiting. The way that China handles children with special needs, is they send adoption agencies a list of children who the agency tries to place with families that they are working with. Well, in December '06, China changed their regulations in regards to adoptive parents criteria (i.e. no longer could single people adopt), but they also decided to change their Waiting Child (children with special needs) procedures. The new way of doing things sounded very complicated and we weren't sure how well it was going to work. In Jan. '07, we found out that there was going to be one more list before the new system took affect! We prayed desperately that God would make things clear! We had to pray that there was a baby, at least 12 months younger than our youngest, and with very mild special needs. So we waited and prayed. In Jan, the list was suppose to come out at "any time". Well, it didn't. In fact, the long awaited list didn't come out until April 30! After months of waiting, God picked the perfect time to deliver! I had been talking to my friend Amy, who was also anxiously awaiting this list, and I had told her that I found out that our agency had the list, they were just waiting for the medical information to get translated. As soon as I hung up with her, I casually decided to check my email, and there it was! The announcement that the list had been posted! I immediately checked it out and there were 10 children on the list. I looked at all of the birthdates, and out of 10, only 1 of them met our age restrictions! I immediately called Steve (who was on his way home from softball) and told him about the list and the child. I begged him to hurry, because I didn't want to look at Lai Fu Tao's picture without him. When he arrived home, we opened her online file and saw her beautiful face!! I immediately cried, because I knew then and there that she was our daughter. We immediately emailed Hope for Children and requested to review her medical records. The policy is to allow 2 families at a time to review her records for 7 days. At the end of those 7 days, a committee decides which family gets to pursue the adoption!!! No pressure there!!! We gave her file to 2 pediatricians, who felt good about her health (I will discuss her condition later) and we decided to pursue adopting her. So, once again we waited. This time to hear if we would "get" her. The day that the committee was to meet, they found out that Lai Fu Tao had had some necessary surgery, so they decided not to pick a family until we both could review the updated medical information. UGH!! More waiting!! So a week or 2 went by, still no news. One day, on my way home from work, Steve called me and said that he heard that there was only one family reviewing Lai Fu Tao's medical. Panic! Did we get bumped? So I prayed in the car, and Steve made the call to Hope. He found out that the other family backed out!!! Praise God! And more good news - no other family was able to review her records!!! So we found out 2 days later that Lai Fu Tao was our little girl to pursue!! God is so good!! Lai Fu Tao is 14 months younger than our Liz and she has a mild condition (lymph csytic hygroma) that has already been repaired. There is not a doubt in my mind that this little girl was given to us by God. Although I was not able to birth her, she is our daughter all the same. Only God can perform these miracles - and I am grateful to Him!!!