An Angel

By divine intervention, I had the pleasure of meeting a wonderful woman through a Pingliang Yahoo chat group who was going back to the orphanage from where her child came. Her mission: to supply the children with medical supplies, toys, clothing, etc. After reading her post about her pending travel plans overseas, I didn't hesitate for a second to email her. My original request to her was to simply give our daughter a few extra hugs and kisses from us. Being the kind woman she is, she went beyond our hopes and wishes. She loved on our daughter for days, took pictures (many!!), brought her gifts from us, and even sent two video clips of her. With these clips, we are able to get a small glimmer of her personality and her dimeanor and we feel as if we already know her.

Now for all of you that know me, you may know that I worry (just a bit) so having received these images truly eased my anxieties about her health. How reassuring! God's master plan meant that my path in life would intersect with that of this dear, dear woman. She is an angel and we are so truly grateful for her and all that she has done for us!!!

Enjoy the pictures and video!

Pingliang City and Orphanage

Pingliang
Pingliang lies on the Loess Plateau,in the eastern region of the Liupan Mountains and the upper reaches of the Jing River. It used to be one of the important places of ancient Chinese culture and the second key post on the Silk Road as well as a strategic point, through the ages, along the natural barrier formed by the Liupan Mountains. As early as the late Neolithic Age, 4,000 years ago, human beings settled here. It is now the administrative center for Pinliang Districtand has a population of 270,000 of 14 nationalities, 73.4~0f whom are Han and 26.5~ Hui; others include: Man,Buyi, Baoan, Xibo, Tibetan, Korean, Russian, etc. Pingliang is a vast territory rich in natural resources. It cultivated land, natural forests,grasslands, and land suitable for either forest or grass. Rich in mineral resources, Pingliang has twelve active mines and verified deposits of sixteen minerals to include coal ,iron, copper, aluminum, pottery clay, limestone, etc. The coal deposits are estimated at 18 million tons. The limestone is of very high quality and in a concentrated location for easy mining. Animal resources are rich, too; in addition to poultryand livestock,there are wild animals too: musk, deer, fox,wolf, leopard, badger, hedgehog, wild boar, pheasant,etc. The wild plants of interest are mountain peach, wildapricot, mushroom, and over one hundred wild herbs likelicorice root.
(taken from www.silkroadcn.com/pingliang.htm)

Our referral

These pictures were taken when Liang Ruoting was four months old. This was our first glimpse of our child. Look at that smile and those eyes!

The following pictures were taken when she was 7 months old.

Look at those big beautiful brown eyes! It looks like she will take after my side of the family with thick hair unlike her daddy's, well, let's just say "thin" hair.

Introducing....Liang Ruoting

“When Jesus Christ asked little children to come to him, he didn't say only rich children, or White children, or children with two-parent families, or children who didn't have a mental or physical handicap. He said, "Let all children come unto me.” ~Marian Wright Edelman

We received our phone call from our agency, FTIA, on August 15 around 9:30 am stating that they have matched us with a baby! After following countless blogs from other prospective adoptive parents, we anticipated a wait time of AT LEAST 2 years before hearing about a child. Since we started this process just last January, we were shocked and elated by the timing of the phone call. Another pleasant surprise for us was finding out her birthday was January 28 of this year! We prepared ourselves initially for a child 18 months old or older so news of a seven month old baby up for adoption was wonderful. We said "yes" and instantly became a family of five. Our girls were thrilled upon hearing that they would have a new sister! They excitedly began talking about sharing a room with each other. The plans for who gets to sleep on the top bunk (once we get them a bunk bed) were already mapped out.

Liang Ruoting was found at the waiting hall of a railway station on February 1, 2008. She was then brought to the Social Welfare Institute of Pingliang City in Gansu Province. At the time she weighed 2.9 kg and was 46 cm long. Currently, other than her visible disability, she is considered to be healthy. At eight months old, she sits and is able to stand by holding onto objects. We just can't wait to get our hands on her.

Throughout this process, Jon and I kept searching for signs from God to validate whether we we're making the right decision. His guidance was felt in many different ways but one of the more significant signs helped us solidify that were indeed about to travel down the path He chose for us. This sign came in the form of this little girl's name. From our research, we believe that the name "Liang" indicates the orphanage she comes from. We felt chills when we learned that "Looks like Grace" is the meaning of the name "Ruoting". On March 6, 2002, my niece and god daughter, Grace Josephine (Gracie Jo), died suddenly in her sleep when she was just shy of 19 months old . This connection of Gracie Jo's name to Liang Ruoting's, was too powerful for us to ignore. As tragic as that March day was, our entire family has tried to find the positives from her short sweet life. Who would have known this would take the form of two little girls? Lillian Grace and Maggie Josephine were adopted from China by my sister and brother-in-law sometime after this tragedy. They are such a blessing and a joy. We believe that while sitting on God's lap, Gracie helped hand pick each of those girls for this family. Ironically, we received our call on Lili's birthday. Coincidence? I don't think so. Just one other example of God's presence and affirmation that His plan was now our plan. We debated on including Grace in her name, but we are not sure. We, as a family, have decided to name her Julianne. Julianne Grace OR Julianne Liang OR Julianne Ruoting. We knew that the name we chose would have "Li" in it since my name is Deborah Lee and our children's names are Leah and Natalie. So when we received the call for Liang Ruoting, we knew she belonged in our family.

“I'm singing at the top of my lungs, I'm so full of answered prayers.” Psalm 13:5

Our cup is already flowing over.........we can't wait to make her a part of our lives.