One year ago today we saw our daughter's face for the first time

Today, one year ago, was the day that we got Lili's (Mei Xiu Yuan's) referral information.

I'll never forget opening that email and reading all about this little girl on the other side of the world. Her history from the date she was found (3/22/03) till September of '06 was all there on paper: The first time she held her head up, the first time she smiled and recognized her caretakers, the first time she crawled and walked and talked. I didn't know if I should get attached to any of that. After all, we were reading about a complete stranger. Why get all invested in something that may never come to be? It would just make it hurt all the more when we found out she would be someone else's daughter.



Jeff and I would talk and talk and talk about this girl for the next 4 days.

"Should we do this?"

"She's so much older than we wanted."

"Doesn't she deserve a family?"

"I don't know what to do. I'm scared."

So, we prayed for God to show us His will. That was all we could do. If He wanted this to be 'Lili', He would work it all out. If this girl wasn't our Lili, He would help us through.

And the rest is history.



When we talked to Lili about it today (for what it was worth), we showed her her referral pictures. She said "Lili short hair, Lili sad, no happy."



God is so great.