Harli is doing great! She is talking more and more everyday. It's been a long road to being able to actually have a conversation with her, but we are starting to really turn a corner. She is now five and will be headed to Kindergarten in the Fall. It's so awesome to hear her putting words together to make small sentences. She is such a smart cookie! She had Dental surgery last December which included 8 crowns, several fillings and it eventually leaded to her two front teeth being extracted in February. After the Dental surgery she really took off talking and we can only imagine how much those teeth had been bothering her. She is such a happy girl! She is full of sass (a real Chinese "spicy girl" for sure) and loves to sing.
We have continued her appointments with her Cardiologist. The VSD we were watching continues to close. During our most recent visit, the Dr. repeated the echocardiogram - her last one was over a year ago. She feel alseep for the first time during this echo, due to that she was perfectly still and the Dr. was able to see a much clearer view of her heart. He was able to confirm that her ASD, that we thought had closed because it didn't appear on prior echo's, was still there. Due to her age, she will need to have a Cath procedure to close that hole. We are hoping and praying that this will be all she needs. However, there is a small chance that the VSD is still open and that she will need open heart surgery after all because the VSD is right next to the valve. We will schedule her Cath sometime soon, within the next few months. This was really a lot to take in at this visit as everything had been so positive with prior visits. We took this news pretty hard at first. We were prepared originally for her to have open heart surgery but, it was hard to hear that news after things seemed to be so amazingly well for so long.
Also, we had news that many people didn't/still don't know....
In January, we were not in process to adopt, but we found ourselves reviewing the file of a little girl. It all came about quickly and we felt compelled to ask Dr.'s to review her file, but we weren't sure about her Special Needs as we weren't familiar with them. After consulting Dr. after Dr. - I think 7, we felt confident that we could manage those needs. We kept expecting doors to close. After the medical, we started questioning how we would afford it, we are still paying the remaining balance of Harli's adoption & Dental expenses. Even though we were open to adopting again, the reality of actually being faced with doing it was a little intimidating. Not that we weren't going to remain open to it, but all the stress of the process and what others would think came flooding into our minds. However, every reason we came up with to not adopt her sounded so selfish. The Holy Spirit has guided us before and we recognized that still, small voice. Both of us prayed and prayed for God's will, for Him to lead us. Doors kept opening; we were presented a way to pay for our Home Study out of the blue. At that point we both knew that she was supposed to be our daughter.
Our study at church with our Small Group during this time and the messages during service were about taking up your cross to follow Him. For us we felt like this is was our cross. We knew what we needed to do deep down. We knew we would be criticized for this choice and that people would challenge our decision and some have already. We know there are people reading this and shaking their heads and thinking "what are they thinking". What we are thinking is that God has called us to do this and we will honor Him at all costs. We will not be ashamed when people ask us if we are crazy, we will not be made to feel like we're doing something wrong. Ultimately we had to make the choice; will we please God or will we please others. That's the bottom line; that's how we made our decision. (and....just a side note that we will be fundraising like crazy so if you don't want to see it then please un-friend us now!!)
I must also say that we have also had so many people show us support and love as we've started to share this news. To be able to share this with people who haven't judged us has been so amazing. Some of these people I didn't expect a positive response from and I'm overwhelmed with the wonderful family and friends we have surrounding us!
So, having said all of that....we are overjoyed to introduce our daughter to you!! She will be 2 in June and we cannot wait until we are all one, big happy family...together.
My post title is He ALWAYS makes all things work together for my good. It's true. Even though Harli's heart hasn't healed itself like we thought, we know God's timing is perfect and this was reviled to us at just the right time. Had we known this about her heart, we probably would not be adopting right now. Even if she had surgery upon returning home, we probably wouldn't have adopted again. Her VSD is hopefully closed and if it is then she will only need a Cath vs open heart. There are always reasons to praise Him. He is always in charge and aligning our lives according to His plan. Sometimes, it's so difficult to understand, but we will remain steadfast in His goodness and faithfulness.
If you would please...pray for Harli over the next several weeks as we schedule her appointments and eventually travel to the Children's hospital where she will have the Cath. Please pray for our adoption process. Please pray for our other children as we experience all of this as a family; that it will only draw us closer to each other and strengthen our faith.
