True Love: News from Guangzhou

Today, on our first bright morning here in Guangzhou, as we enjoyed the beauty of Shamian Island here in the middle of the Pearl River, we learned some very sad news about little Anna.

At a routine medical check-up (required for granting her visa to travel back to the U.S.), doctors at the clinic discovered what they termed a heart murmur. Undetected, it seems, throughout all of her medical check-ups throughout her abandonment, her time with the foster family and when she was prepared to be adopted, this condition forced the doctor at the clinic to fail her health examination this morning. We now believe that her very small size in comparison with the rest of the girls in our group may be a symptom of this heart condition. At this time, we do not know the impact or the gravity of the particular heart murmur that Anna has.


Please, please begin to pray for Anna and our family as we rush to work things out here in China and please include us on as many prayers lists as possible. Please pray that Anna's condition would be harmless and not serious in any way. Please, also pray that our work to re-do the visa and adoption paperwork would be expedited and that it would come at little to no extra trouble or extra time in China.

This condition has now placed her in the special needs classification, as opposed to a healthy child. This is something we were unprepared for in a number of ways. Our paperwork and the documentation required for her visa into the United States does not cover what is required for a special needs child. Currently, we are working on expediting this process in order to update our paperwork to handle this unforeseen situation.


It is also something that we were all unprepared for emotionally, but it is also something that brings out what I believe is most beautiful in Anna's parents and in this entire process. The way everything was intended to be, we have waited for four years in the healthy child program to adopt a healthy child. But, we all know how seldom things end up how they were intended. We often sit still to stop and wonder why. Why us? Why her? Why me? I don't know if we will ever know the full answer, at least not at present. I believe God has a purpose in everything. And, I don't think that the question 'why' is really what matters at all; I think it is our reaction that is most important.

I know one thing: It has been really a wonderful, eye-opening experience to stand where I am and watch Angelle and Jay and their reaction to this crisis. This is what real love is. Here the reaction is what has taken the front seat. The foremost question here is how to fix the paperwork problem and how to get Anna home.


I stand amazed at how our ideas about things change with time and with perspective. You see, I don't think we were supposed to travel the 8,357 miles to adopt just any healthy child, even though that is what we signed up for. We were supposed to travel the 8,357 miles to adopt Anna. Maybe we were supposed to be patient, waiting those four years and maybe Anna's heart condition wasn't detected...all for a purpose.


All I can say for sure, is what a joy and an honor it has been to watch Angelle and Jay continue, even in light of recent difficulties, to follow through on the promise they made four years ago- the promise to adopt someone on the other side of the world. I believe this is how it is supposed to be.


As I close, and as I think that we are all here beginning to question a little and beginning to feel sad and overwhelmed, there is something else I think you should know about today. Today, as we wandered through the beautiful streets of Shamian Island with their 19th century European architecture and ate at one of the favorite American restaurants, Lucy's, Anna laughed, and ran, and played and smiled...a lot. It was pure, free, unhindered joy. She wandered around the hotel lobby as Angelle worked problems out with Elsie, bumping into the tourists signing in and throwing her balloon everywhere. She even put her very, very small hand in mine to go up a flight of stairs...and she hadn't really taken to me before this. She is so, so beautiful when she laughs. And, I think this part of today deserves to be told just as much as the first.