From Jill, September 26th...

Maybe it's a girl thing but it's fascinating to me to hear people's stories. We are staying in China at the White Swan and there are many, many adoptive families here with lots of stories. These families are everywhere and we've met so many of them. Also our agency puts us in groups, and our group has 12 families in it. 10 of the families flew to Beijing and went out from there to their child's province, another family flew to another province, and then we have been here the whole time because Collins was in this province. Every single family we have talked to is here adopting a special needs child. It seems those are the children coming out the most. The funny thing to me is that when we switched to special needs we had to fill out medical forms, regarding what "special needs" we would take. Now that we're here and you see and talk to these children, you realize that they are just kids! The special need doesn't seem to be so big when you have this adorable child created by God standing in front of you. It's just been funny to me that being here I just see the person, not their problem. I met one single lady with no children. Her adopted daughter is 6 and has webbed feet and is missing some fingers. This child is precious and sweet and what a beautiful family has been made! What a life story! 2 lives changed forever. In our group of 12 families, half of the families are here for their 2nd or 3rd China adoption. We have lots of Chinese siblings running around. Of the 12 children, a couple have heart problems and most with cleft lip and palette. One of the families was told their little girl, about 2, had severe brain trauma. Neurologists in America looked at her records and thought it was something minor. She is a sweetheart and it's so fun to see her being loved on by her new parents. I asked one of the moms in our group what the special need was for her son. She said, "his age." He is 10. Older children are considered special needs because they are more difficult to place. She began telling me her story. They have 3 biological older sons, and then adopted a little girl from China a few years ago who had cerebral palsy. They adopted another little girl with cerebral palsy from China about 18 months ago. In the meantime, they were financially supporting a little boy in a foster care group setting in China each month. In looking at a list of kids available for adoption, she saw this boy come up! A lady in China was going to adopt him and it fell through. This mom said he was really beginning to feel sad that no one wanted him. So ow he is theirs! He's done great so far, just joined right in with the rest of the group. Collins and this boy are the only ones in our group that are not babies. 2 interesting stories from our families: one of the little boys adopted won't go to sleep laying down. He falls asleep standing and then they lay him down. Another story was when some of the families went back to the orphanage for a visit. This was in an orphanage where the babies sleep 2 to a crib. They were told that they hadn't been able to get the crib mates who were still left behind to eat for a few days after the other ones left. This is hard stuff. Orphan work is messy, but RESCUE always is. It hurts to see what life has dealt these vulnerable ones. Collins is a spirited fun little girl, but even though we think we are making progress everyday, we still take steps backward, too. We need prayer that He would heal the brokenness from her past, that He would give us wisdom and strength in parenting, and that this language barrier would be settled as soon as possible. We really need to be able to communicate to her. Thanks for all your love and prayers.