Older Child

When we went to pick up Karissa in Yunnan province, it was just us and one other family: Brent & Kim. We spent a whole week with them doing many activities together: paperwork, meals, visit to the orphanage, excursions, etc.

After that week, when we went to Guangzhou, where we met up with 16 other families from the same adoption agency that we went through. It was great meeting up with so many families who were on the same life-changing trip as we were. There were a few families and stories that became very memorable for us.

One story is with Todd & Kristine (picture above). They have two biological girls and they are adopting five year Molly from Guizhou province. After they were matched but before they went to China to pick Molly up, they made a photo book for her with pictures of themselves as well as their two girls. On the day that they went to pick her up, Molly walked up happily to Todd, gave him a kiss, and called him, "Papa." Then she walked up to Kristine, gave her a kiss, and called her, "Momma." She was holding the photo book that they sent her. It was very worn by then, because she has been carrying it around with her at the orphanage, showing the pictures to everyone. Molly is such a sweet little girl with a very contagious smile. This little girl caused us to think for the first time that maybe one day, just maybe, God may want us to adopt an older child. It was just a thought, but seeing a precious girl who wanted to be loved and adopted so much just completely melted our hearts. Maybe... just maybe...