Our Journey to Jie Jie |
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As soon as we returned from China with our daughter Shu Shu, in July of 2006, we knew that God had changed our hearts forever and we would return to China again to adopt another child. The question was when, and which child God would choose for us. We felt in our hearts it would be another daughter but were unsure if she would be referred to us from the non-special needs program again or we would accept a referral from the special needs program. One thing we did know for sure is that we would use European Adoption Consultants for our adoption agency. The staff is wonderful and caring and our first adoption went amazingly smooth. We also cannot say enough about our guide “Zhou” who made our journey to China stress free.
After waiting the required year, and completing our second dossier, we logged in on the non-special needs waiting list for our second daughter in August of 2007. We knew with the “slowing down” of China adoptions, it was going to be a very long wait for a child but we logged in any way. In September of 2008, after our daughter Shu Shu turned 3 yrs old the “slow down” continued so we opened up our hearts (fully) to a special needs adoption. After much prayer, soul searching, and researching many special needs conditions, we came up with a list that we believed we could manage. We spoke with Karla, our adoption consultant, at length about the conditions on our list and she was very candid about her thoughts. She shared her expertise on various conditions, which was an immense help in our decision making. We also consulted other parents of special needs adoptions for advice and encouragement. One condition we did not originally have on our list was a Congenital Heart Defect. Ironically I am a nurse with a background in Cardiac Intensive Care. I guess I know “a little too much” about the heart, and thought a child with a CHD was too “risky,” and we would be opening our lives to possible heartache. We also did not want to be considered for a referral until after December, hoping to not travel to China until the summer of 2009.
Well God had a different plan, and already knew the child He had chosen for us! One weekend in October when I was on-line researching Atrial and Ventricular Septal Defects in children, God spoke to me . . . “Do not be afraid!” is what I heard. I shared this revelation with my husband and told him we needed to add CHD to our list of conditions. We received a call from Karla at the end of the month asking us if we would consider accepting a referral earlier. This is when our hearts started beating really fast and our faith was truly tested! We told her we needed a few days to consider this and would get back to her. Well, after a few days and many “signs” one being a sermon from our Pastor on Ephesians 3:20 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us . . .” we knew we were ready to change our plans. We called Karla at the beginning of November and told her we would definitely like to be considered for a referral when the next SN list came out. We also told her to add Congenital Heart Defect to our list.
On November 20th, 2008 at 11:00 p.m. the phone rang. On the other end was Karla’s sweet voice saying “I have a daughter for you!” She is beautiful and her condition is VSD (Ventricular Septal Defect). I could not believe it. I woke Ken up and shared the news. We were so excited, all of our anxiety was lifted and we had “perfect peace”. We knew in our hearts that this was the child God had planned for our family. The next morning we reviewed her file and had everything faxed to our pediatrician and the University Hospital Adoption Health Service. Even though we knew in our hearts we would be accepting this referral, we wanted to make sure we knew what her health needs might be when we got her home. We were told in general her health was very good and her VSD was mild to moderate in size according to her Echocardiogram report. My pediatrician, whose advice I respect immensely, was very candid in saying that we were looking at as little as “monitoring” her VSD or as much as having it corrected with a possible open heart surgery. It would be hard to know until we got her home and had a complete cardiac work up done here. If we were willing to accept this responsibility then he thought we would be fine with accepting this referral. On November 21, 2008, we accepted the referral of Xia Jidie born on March 30, 2007. Since our Dossier was already complete and in China, the rest of our journey went very quickly. We received LOA (Letter of Acceptance) in December and TA (Travel Approval) on February 13, 2009 only 2 ½ months after referral!
We traveled to China on April 29, 2009 with 4 other families. Our trip to China was very different than our first trip in that we would not be with “our travel group” and “Zhou” the entire time. We were a little anxious about traveling without Zhou but trusted that everything would be fine. Well everything was better than “fine” while we were in our daughter’s province. Mr. Zhou had hired a very capable young woman that took care of our every need, completed our adoption paperwork and sent us off to Guangzhou to meet back up with him and our group. I was also a little concerned about adopting an older child, and the grieving she would be going through. She had been living with a foster family for 2 yrs. I have to say we were definitely blessed beyond measure and Jie Jie was truly meant to be our daughter. She had very little grieving and bonded with me immediately. She was energetic, happy and healthy the entire time we were in China.
The week after we arrived home Jie Jie continued her “good natured” personality and had little trouble adjusting to the Harp household. She also had her general exam with our pediatrician as well as her first visit with her cardiologist. Her general exam and all her blood work were normal including her height and weight on our growth charts. Her echocardiogram showed her VSD is small and restrictive with no
valvular involvement. She requires no medication and has no physical restrictions at this time. We will not know if her VSD will close on its own or will require surgical closing but are hopeful she will continue to live a healthy life without any surgeries.
Jie Jie has been home with us for six short months now and it is like she has always been our daughter. Last November when Karla called me with Jie’s referral she also said “Kim and I have found Shu Shu’s sister!” Well they definitely did and we will be forever grateful to them. Her sister Shu Shu loves her so much. It melts my heart when she tells me “Jie Jie is my best friend!” People often ask us about our adoption journeys and when we tell them Jie Jie was referred to us from the SN list they are bewildered and ask what her special need is. I love to tell them her special need is “she just needed a Forever Family!” and it happened to be us!
The Harp Family
Ken ~Sharon~Shu Shu & Jie Jie
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