This is Lily on the day she was placed into our arms. September 1st, 2008 in Nanjing China.
Now, if you take a close look you can see one hair that has grown!!!! Actually, maybe a few others too. But, sometimes we look at her and wonder if her hair has grown at all. Her face has filled out a little more and so has her vocabulary.
Our two little treasures!
Six months ago Lily was placed in our arms. She has been an amazing little girl. She never seemed to grieve, except the day we visited the orphanage. She has become more and more attached to us. She is definitely a Mama's girl. Lily has a sweet disposition, though she can be quite stubborn. For the most part her orphanage behavior is gone. She doesn't pinch, pull hair, or spit anymore. She gets along with her sister most days. She has days when she just wants to battle it out with Emily. Thank God those days aren't too often.
Lily can now sing the ABC song with very little help. She is recognizing some of the letters and is finally remembering some of the colors. She just did not seem to get the concept of colors. She now will sit and listen to a book being read. I don't think that she had books read to her in China. She used to want me to "read" a book to her and then stick her face in my face and wonder why I was talking like that. Of course, then I couldn't see the book to read it. The look on her face was just so funny.
Lily has just become more and more dear to us. God has truly blessed us with her. We are enjoying having her in our family.
God continues to draw our hearts toward orphans. On the side bar of our blog we have added a link to No Hands But Ours. There are peoples testimonies listed under "family stories". There are some amazing stories of how God worked in people's lives to connect them with a special needs child. We have been blessed and encouraged by these stories.
The stories we read on this site remind us of what The Lord did when we were waiting for Lily. We had been praying for God to bring people in her life who knew Him and would love her and care for her. We prayed this often. Then, the Monday before we were going to leave for China we received a comment on our blog from a person who actually volunteered at Lily's orphanage! They said, I know your Lily, we call her JuJu. They said they were praying for her and loved "Dad" like we did. They had been volunteering at the orphanage and had been praying that "Dad" would bring a family who would love her like "He" did. We were so blessed that God, in His awesome power had orchestrated it so that these people were there loving our little daughter for us until we arrived!!! WE TRUELY SERVE AN AWESOME GOD!
