Addisyn's 2 Year Gotcha!

I can’t believe we met our littlest princess 2 years ago today!!  Her story was another that could only be written by God!

When we decided to go for our “baby girl” and there were a few parameters we agreed about.  Considering that this would be our fifth child, we knew we couldn’t take on too much as far as needs go.  We also wanted a little girl.  This would mean a longer wait and most kiddos are at least a year old at referral, usually closer to 18 months.  By the time you travel, this child could be almost two, so as young as possible was important to us.  We told our social worker all of this info but also said if there was a referral that she felt would suit us that didn’t fit these send it to us.  We knew that God pushed us out of our comfort zone with previous adoptions and for good reason each time.  

We were finally logged in (meaning China had received all of our documents) and we were ready to wait for our referral.  It only took about 2 months and we received the call.  A little girl’s file had been returned two days after a monthly release of new kiddos on to the list agencies pull from.  Our social worker let us know that this girl was older than we wanted (22 months) and had cerebral palsy.  We had said we wouldn’t consider this need, since Meilynn had it and we weren’t sure we could handle 2 kiddos with cp.  (Thank goodness God knew better!!)  We decided to look at her file anyways and told our social worker to send it to us.  

We poured over it trying to put the pieces together.  There is a checklist that lists all sorts of milestones and they check which ones the child can currently do.  NOTHING was checked, not any of the milestones.  At first, we thought maybe it was a mistake, but the section on personality and sleep patterns had two things were checked.  This was very concerning.  Most people would have passed this file on without any milestones being reached.  By looking through all of the pieces of information sent we began to piece together her brief history.  

This sweet child was abandoned at the hospital severely malnourished a few days after birth.  She spent the first two months of her life there to get healthy, with no parent or caregiver by her bedside or holding her.  She then went to her orphanage for about 4 months at which time they gave her the diagnosis of cerebral palsy along with a minor heart condition.  They sent her to the same orphanage Meilynn was at for rehabilitation.  Through two very brief updates from this orphanage, she appeared to be able to crawl quite late, around the time that her heart condition healed on its own.  This made sense to us, since Kaitlyn was delayed due to her heart condition, but took off developmentally after repair.  She had only returned to her home orphanage a month before the paperwork reached us, a couple of weeks before it was prepared.  They most likely hadn’t checked anything because they didn’t have much history with her.  However, it was still a huge risk.  We asked for video, but realized that it wouldn’t come before we needed to commit and send in a letter of interest.  

We prayed and decided to go for it.  The day after we wrote our letter requesting to adopt Addisyn, we received an adorable short video of her WALKING!  God is so good!!

When we finally made it to Guangzhou to meet our Guangdong sweetie, we were already being reminded of what raising a two year old is all about since we had Ryan for a full week.  We anxiously waited in the familiar Civil Affairs office where we had met Meilynn 1.5 years before.  She was already there, walking around.  The smallest thing I had ever seen.  She was so skinny.  She sat on our laps and we filled out paperwork.  When, we finally made it back to the hotel, we were shocked.  She sat where we put her and never moved.  She didn’t play with toys.  She didn’t walk or crawl.  She didn’t talk.  She only cried a soft cry and rocked.  This was such a drastic difference to her brother, who was 2 months older and VERY interactive.  This went on for 2 weeks.  A visit to her orphanage gave some insight as to her behavior.  There just wasn’t enough help.  There were two nannies trying to care for the 15 children aged 2 and under.  MOST of these babies had severe needs.  The children clearly didn’t make it out of their cribs very often, maybe an hour a day.   The sweet babies were rocking and I tried to make my way around the room to touch and love on each one of them.  Some of them would smile at me, and some seemed too far lost in a world absent of love.

I look at our beautiful princess today and I am amazed at God’s blessing.  She has made tremendous progress and is every bit a four year old! She is PERFECT!  She is absolutely my baby as she loves to cuddle and be held.  She is so humorous and often entertains all of us.  She is full of spice and knows what she wants.  She does a great job coloring and enjoys “reading” books to her baby (doll) or anybody that will listen to her.  I can’t imagine life without our sweet Addisyn and am so glad that God was in control of this journey and not me.  We love you Addisyn!  Happy 2 year Gotcha Day!!