After 3 years of waiting, we were finally matched with our daughter. We received "the call" on February 8, 2010. After much prayer, we sent our letter of intent to China on March 2, 2010 to accept our daughter, Qian Jia Xi. Today we received our Pre-approval from China, which means we can announce this great news with everyone now. Her name means beautiful and happy. As most of you are aware, we will be calling her Lily Marie. She is almost 11 months old now. Her birthday is April 28, 2009. She has a unilateral cleft lip and palate.
Lily was abandoned on May 8, 2009 and found on the same day and taken to Pingdingshan City Social Welfare Institute. She is currently in foster care. She is described by the nannies as an extremely bright and mischievous little girl. She also really loves to smile. As soon as you appear in front of her or call her name, she will immediately dance her hands and kick her feet, giggling out loud, reaching out to you to be picked up. When we carried her into a room, she would also always be wide-eyed, looking all about her curiously, not missing anything. When she was not yet two months old, she only needed someone to play with her, and she would giggle. This is a mischievous little girl. As soon as she discovers that there is someone in the room, she lets out a sharp cry to get you to hold her. If you don’t let her know you’re there, she is a good, extremely quiet little girl.
We are hoping to travel to China in late May or June to bring her home. We are so excited and in awe of God's blessing on our family. We ask that you join us in praying for her. We are still hoping that we will receive an update on her before we travel. I will be updating the blog whenever we get new information, so please follow along.