Our Adoption Story
China - 2005
Our trip was much what we expected. Our adoption agency took very good care of us. We were not able to go to the orphanage, but from pictures, website and newspaper articles; we gathered she was from a nice orphanage that was clean with good caregivers.
The day we got our daughter was a Sunday and the weather was beautiful. It was the end of a holiday week and we walked to a park that afternoon. They were having live performances of music and dance that we stopped to watch. They were in beautiful costumes and makeup and we were glad that we were able to take pictures.
When we first met her, we were amazed that she didn't cry and was very receptive to us. That was something we were earnestly hoping and praying about. She even smiled on our very first visit and when the nannies tried to take her back she didn't want to go. We were so surprised by how warm she was letting us hold her and play with her. She is not like that with most strangers.
Our daughter was found when she was 2 years old at the orphanage doorstop. They placed her birthday as that date. Two years later, to the day, we celebrated her 4th birthday together in our hotel room in China.
Our daughter has congenital complex heart disease. She was born without a ventricle of her heart. She did not have the surgeries she needed until she was 3, so she has some severe delays developmentally.
Her other 4 siblings have done wonderfully with her, accepting her and loving her. Because of her special needs, she has had a lot of health issues and as of now she is still not able to speak. Our kids have taken this all in stride; it's been harder for us as parents. She loves having all the attention.
We are working through her speech delay and baggage from her past. She also had to have another major heart surgery soon after we got her and she had several major complications afterwards, so it is actually still a difficult transition time. But we all feel sure she was meant to be a part of our family and that we will get her to the other side of a lot of these issues together.
Toddler adoption has a lot of challenges as the child has already had so much formative time that will probably never know much about. They have already done a lot of becoming. I can't imagine how families do it without God. He is the one who brings you the right child and gives you all you need to care for the child. So when things are hard you can have peace knowing that God knew what He was doing, so you can trust Him. When you wonder about the future, you can trust Him. Adoption was His idea. So we try to learn from Him as we go.
The Allen Family
