Journey to Megan!

Mom Kris writes:

In May 2005 after a very difficult year, we decided to begin the journey to bring our daughter home from China. About 8 years earlier, we knew that we would adopt from China after hearing a woman's story about her life as an orphan in what we thought was China. (We just recently found out she's not from China at all!!!) When we started the journey, we fully expected to have our daughter home for Christmas 2006. But, that was not what was meant to be as we started the journey when the wait began extending. No one had ANY idea at the time that we would have to wait almost 3 years to bring our daughter home.

Finally, in February 2008, we saw our most precious Megan MeiLin. She is from Hunan province and was almost 11 months old when she was placed in our arms March 31, 2008. She was very small and almost infant like. She was very behind her peers and unable to sit up, roll over or stand. But, she had a smile that made us know she was ours from the start! She was the only baby at the Civil Affairs office who wasn't crying, and who, in fact, giggled at our silliness to see her beautiful smile. She's now 2 1/2 and caught up with her peers and, in fact, has surpassed them in many areas. She's just a joy. When we were just beginning our wait, a dear friend with 2 daughters from China told me that we will wait until our daughter is ready. It helped me throughout the wait to know that our daughter was not ready for us, but we were waiting for her whenever she was ready. She was born about 2 years AFTER we made the decision to begin our adoption journey. We had to wait because she was not ready for us in 2005, 2006 or 2007. We cannot imagine our life without Megan. And we are so grateful that we waited so long for her...she was worth every minute of waiting and tear of frustration!

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The two pictures are Megan being handed to her overjoyed parents by the assistant director of her SWI, and Megan taken this month in her Halloween themed- finery!