Sisters Kate Jia Xin age 3 and Addie Min Lan age 4 So we got home with Addie and settled right into our goats having babies, winter sledding, adjusting to Addie's hearing aids, and the constant activity of two young girls in the house. Claude and I are on several adoption support groups and it is not at all uncommon for members to advocate for children to be adopted. In Feb of this year, I was checking my e-mails and there was one that said "5 year old girl needs family" in the subject line. Well, I opened the message to read that there was a little girl that a family had said yes to adopt, but later had backed out, stating her age as the reason. The message went on to say that the agency was searching for a family for this child and could we please advocate for her adoption. I said my prayers for her and hit send to forward her information and plea on to others hoping her forever family would find her! Later that day, Claude came and stood by me and asked if I had seen the e-mail about the 5 year old. "Yep" I said. He asked if I had asked for her file. "Nope" I said. He said, "You can't can you?" "Nope" I said...and I said, "You know we don't ask for a child's file unless we are knowing we are looking at it to make sure that the child is ours." Well he went and put the girls down for a nap, came back and was really quiet...then he said to me, "I feel that we are supposed to ask for this child's file. To make sure we are to either advocate for her adoption or to see if she is ours." So I sent off a message to the agency, Villa Hope Adoption Agency and asked if we could be considered to see her file. We did tell them our experience with adoption and also with Microtia. They responded immediately with her information and when we opened her file we both knew that Tao Ying was ours. Tao in early 2005 or late 2004 Claude's comment was "She is beautiful" and what I saw was her hands. She was holding a girl's hand in comfort, and smiling at another little girl. I saw her as a big sister to our girls, and a little sister to the boys. We formally applied with our letter of intent within just a few days of seeing her photos and reading her medical reports. "An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break." " An ancient Chinese belief We knew that we may be delayed in the timeline of Tao's adoption as there is to be one year in between adoptions, but we had hoped that we would get a waver that would allow us not to wait, but that was not available. We have sent several packages to China for Tao. These all include things to share with the other children, plus family pictures for Tao so she will hopefully feel a bit more comfortable when we bring her home to us. With great struggle we have chosen Tao Ying's English name. We are passing on my name and my sisters and friends name. Tao will have an English name of Ruthie Carolyn TaoYing. We include her in our prayers every minute of the day while we wait to bring her home. We hope to have travel approval and to travel before the end of January '07. Please check back frequently as we will update about Microtia and about adoption as often as we can. Tao in July 2006 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." --Jeremiah 29:11 This webpage was created by Our Adoption Stories Copyright © 2006 DHTML Scripts by Dynamic Drive