Oath Taken – Almost Home Before making the decision to adopt Luke AiGuo we needed to have his medical file evaluated to see if his condition was one we could handle, and we wanted to talk to at least one person who had met him. The day we received Luke’s file from CCAI we asked Rodger’s sister and her husband when the next time they might be visiting Children’s Hospital in Denver (we live in Colorado Springs) so that we could have it evaluated by a cardiologist. To our surprise they said one of them was going up the very next morning! When I went over to their house that night to drop off the file we made a discovery that many of you know about. Our girl’s middle names are Faith and Hope for special reasons. Rodger’s family had been joking that even if we adopted a boy we would need to name him Love. Rodger’s sister saw in the file that the Ai in AiGuo means ‘love.’ AiGuo is actually a very ‘orphan’ name. It basically means love of country – patriot. We think it’s incredible that someone gave him sort of a throw away name that means so much to us. I had also noticed that two people with the same last name had commented on Facebook on the CCAI link with AiGuo’s picture saying they had been praying for him to find a family, so I did some research and found out it was the fantastic Molloy family. Robert and Ciara Molloy (brother and sister) had each volunteered with a wonderful organization called Bring Me Hope. Robert had met AiGuo and was advocating for his adoption for the past few years. Their entire family was praying for him to find a family. They had all been so excited for Luke when they thought he was going to be adopted earlier in the year and were so sad for him when he was then left in China. We were able to Skype with Robert Molloy, who is from Ireland, and learn enough about Luke AiGuo to know that he would most likely be a good fit for our family. Rob and his sister advocate for many orphans. Their love and work is far reaching. There are whole groups of children who have been adopted because of their volunteer time at orphanages and talent for advocating. After we told CCAI that we were for sure going to adopt Luke AiGuo we started meeting so many adoptive families who knew his story, that another family went to China to adopt him and left him there. Luke has no idea how many people have been praying for him to find a forever family. One of our new good friends came over to our house for breakfast. She was standing in my kitchen telling me a fascinating story and saw Luke’s picture on our refrigerator. I wish you all could have seen her face as she put two and two together. I’ll never forget it. She said something in utter surprise like, “YOU are the family adopting AiGuo!” It was such a fun moment. I’m sure you are all wondering the ‘why’ behind the story. Why did the family leave Luke in China while adopting another? Well, we don’t know. We do know that the family met him in Zhengzhou, spent the week there, flew with him to Guangzhou and at that point said they wanted to disrupt. They then had to get back on a plane with him to go back to Zhengzhou to disrupt, so it was quite a process. Disruptions sometimes happen. It’s sad. It’s awful on everyone involved. Sometimes it has nothing to do with a child’s behavior, but rather a severe medical condition that families cannot handle. The thing I can’t get past is the rejection he must have felt. Rejection makes you sick to your stomach. It’s one of those situations where you wake up in the morning and forget that ‘it’ happened, and all of a sudden you remember, and the sadness just hits you like a wave of nausea. Luke must have thought he did something terribly wrong and for some reason wasn’t good enough for a family. Sigh. One of our favorite people we met in China was our representative Rita. When she met us the very first day on the bus in Zhengzhou and we introduced ourselves as AiGuo’s parents she started crying which of course made me cry. They were happy tears though, she was so grateful, and I was so grateful. She said that she was with Luke when he came back to Zhengzhou with the family. She stayed with Luke for a few hours to comfort him and then went with him back to the orphanage. She said that he just cried and cried and could not stop. She and the rest of the people at the orphanage tried to tell Luke that they were not the right family for him. We had Rita talk to him a lot during our time in Zhengzhou. We had her tell Luke to be himself and not try too hard. We had her tell Luke that nothing he could do would make us leave him, that he was our son no matter what. The difference between our interaction with him two weeks ago and today is like night and day. He came to us barely talking, barely smiling and so shy. While we will always be shy and might never talk much, he’s now smiling, giggling, and trying to say English words. Luke even mimics Rodger every night before bed to be silly. Hearing him say words in English is such a sweet sound. I’m excited for the day that it’s more than mimicry, but rather independent thoughts. Here’s the scary part. Everyone was worried that there wasn’t enough time for Luke to be adopted before he turned 14 August 30th. They figured it had been his last chance. So, not long after the disruption CCAI posted Luke’s picture and a write up about him their blog and via Facebook. Of course on that Friday night I read it and the rest is history. Today we swore an oath at the US Consulate to get Luke AiGuo’s VISA. Tomorrow we will get the final paperwork and then we are off to HongKong. Friday we fly to Tokyo and then to Denver. On Friday Luke AiGuo will be an official US citizen as soon as he makes it through immigration. We will be carrying a brown packet that we are not allowed to open until then that contains his VISA paperwork. Writing that makes me tear up. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to hand over that plain brown packet and watch it be opened without bawling. It will be official; Luke AiGuo will have a forever family. Only two days to go. I have so enjoyed our time here, but we are ready to come home. I miss the girls so much. I will be forever grateful to our family who has taken such good care of them that when we call they are usually more interested in playing than chatting with us for long. I want all of you to know who have been praying for Luke AiGuo that God has heard your prayers. Two more days and it will be official. Luke will get to meet his sisters, his grandparents, his aunt and uncle and cousins, and scores of new friends who have been loving and praying for him from afar. Someday, when he can fully understand he will be able to read this, my love letter to him, a small part of HIS story. Someday, he can read the story of his journey to America to his own children. Know that we love you very much Luke AiGuo and are so excited for the adventure that has only just begun. We are privileged to have you has our son and thank God for the opportunity. Love from China, we are almost home!
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 12:18:05 +0000