What can I say, but WOW! God is so Great at all times, but we are in awe of Him right now! Our entire family is SO happy! Her name is GiGi Dahl (silent h - pronounced Dall; not everyone seems to be familiar with this name) Smith.
GiGi is 18 months old and was abandoned when she was 5 month old in the bathroom entrance of a plaza. She has been in the orphanage since. She has been diagnosed with Scoliosis and is missing a few ribs. Dr. Marta (our pediatrician) says her scoliosis is moderate. LeBonheur Children's hospital (about 1 hour from us) specializes in this and does a surgery with titanium rods for children with scoliosis. And every 4-6 months, the rods have to be lengthened since children grow so quickly. GiGi also may have to have a titanium rib placed, but we will really not know exactly what all she will need until she gets here to the U.S. They sent x-rays and pages of medical information, but until a doctor her can see her and look at x-rays done here they don't know for sure.
GiGi's diagnosis is a little more than we had originally planned on taking with a child & we were going to adopt 2 children with one trip. After many, many prayers GiGi is our child! Since she will possibly have several surgeries a year, we will not adopt another child at this time due to time and possible extra finances associated with her medical. I know not everyone understands why in the world we would adopt a child with medical conditions like this and it's not for everyone. A lot of people praise us for what we are doing, but we honestly don't see it as that big of a deal to adopt a child like GiGi. She is our child and we all take care of our children. It's not exactly a choice and sure you want your kids to be healthy in all ways, but it is our calling and she is our baby girl. We have been blessed with 2 biologically beautiful healthy intelligent children and now blessed with a child born in our heart! We always wanted to adopt a special needs child that can lead a normal life with the needed medical intervention -> surgery/medicines/therapies/etc. that we can provide for her. This child will be no different than Colt and Macy Jade are to us now with our love, care, etc.. Did I mention - We are all excited!
We still have to get all our information translated in Chinese and wait on approval from the Chinese government to invite us to come get her. This is the HARD part! How do we leave OUR child in an orphanage for months? It breaks our hearts!!! Colt and Macy Jade cried for her! However, we knew that we would have to wait on her when we started the road to adoption and it's not in our hands! Our adoption agency told us that it would likely be 3-6 months before we travel to China to get our GiGi angel once our Dossier is completed - we are so close to being there! PLEASE PLEASE pray for GiGi!!!! We cannot stand the thought of our child in an orphanage, but we have no other choices!
I'm so very proud of Colt and Macy Jade! They were the very first ones to claim her as "ours". Macy Jade came to me asking about her baby sister. I tried to explain that at that time we were still in prayer to make sure she was our child. Colt overheard and demanded she was his baby sister too! I think this was the answer to our prayers speaking the loudest! They had never claimed any other child as "their sibling". They immediately loved her as they do each other even with only seeing her picture! They talk about her all the time and pray for her each day! Macy Jade has asked for a Chinese babydoll for her birthday. She said it would be her GiGi until we were able to physically get her! Macy Jade explained how she would take this baby doll around and sleep with her to feel closer to GiGi! They are amazing kids and I know GiGi has wonderful role models to follow in their footsteps! She is going to be so rotten!
I think GiGi will fit in perfectly with our family! I've never seen our kids so emotional and immediately in love as they are with her! They HAD to have a picture where they were on the page and GiGi was on the page so they cut and pasted picture of them and GiGi on a page. I cannot post pictures of her on the web yet until we get clearance from the adoption agency. Her little face is just precious; we love her so much- of course we do; she is our child! Macy Jade said "Oh mommy she has my nose!" :0) How could she NOT be our child??? We love her; we love her; we love her!!!!! Praise be to God! THANK YOU! and Thank you to all of you for all of your prayers! Please continue to pray; we would LOVE to have GiGi before the year is over! What better Christmas gift????
I wanted to share to you all our excitement! Thank you for all of your support!
Love In Christ!
Niki
"Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence."
Amazing! I can't wait to meet my niece and love on her. Jer told me that Phil had called him. I'm glad I could come here and read the whole thing. Love you guys.
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