Our First Post

Hi everyone, We are adopting 2 children from Liberia and are hoping and praying that they will be home by Christmas.We've never done this before, but here we go.
I am Lily, and my daughter Susan is also writing some of this, and we can hardly keep straight who did what, so you will probably never know either.
We live in an extended family. There is my husband Doug, my 11 year old son Patrick, Susan, my grown daughter, her husband Brad, and their 4 children, and me, Lily.
I have dreamed of adopting since I was a little four year old girl, and we are finally doing it.
We are adopting a little girl from Liberia named Blessing, and a little boy named Teddy. Susan is going to try to post some photos and maybe even a movie if she can figure out how.

We went to Liberia to see our children recently, so that they can come home on an IR3 visa (it's all very complex). Unfortunately, we couldn't just take them home with us. We would have loved to. Poor little Blessing looks so pathetic, it would be wonderful to get her home. I was shocked to see how thin and floppy she is. Liberia has not been good to her.
Malaria is very, very common in Liberia. Everyone seems to get it sometimes, unless they are always on anti-malarial medications (most Liberians cannot afford them, and only some can access treatment for malaria if they catch it).They believe that Blessing has had cerebral malaria. That is malaria that attacks the brain. In some parts of Africa, the survival rate for cerebral malaria is only 50%. While once I thought malaria is something that you cannot get rid of once you have had it, that is not true. With proper treatment, it can be cured. She no longer has malaria, but she does have problems from the effects of the malaria. She could catch it again, though, and they believe that people who have had cerebral malaria are more prone to that manifestation of malaria than others.
Blessing will probably be mildly retarded, and currently has some motor control issues. She cannot yet walk, and she is very floppy. She smiles a lot and is a very happy little girl. Thankfully, she also fusses if someone else is being held and she is not. This tells us that she is smart enough to complain if things are not going her way, and that she is very definitely affectionate.
Teddy is adorable. He is very standoffish. Somehow, I knew he would be. He is shy, and I don't think he knows how to cope with life in the orphanage.
He is very quiet and guarded, but we like him. Somehow, he acted exactly as I expected. He obediently danced to the music one of his care givers told him to dance to along with the other children, but he did not seem to like it all. Whatever he was told to do he did like a prisoner of war. While he did not express pleasure to meet us, we noted that he did not behave warmly toward his caregivers or even Patty Anglin, the director of AOH. While they are very caring in this orphanage, he is the shy intellectual type that takes time to get to know a person. If my intuition is correct as it was in his behavior when we met him, he will be a very dear loving boy. The only actual evidence is his willingness to obey, but we are confident that underneath his poker face is a little sweetheart. He acted exactly like the person that I thought he was. Such a person would not deal well with life in an institution, and would naturally be very guarded. Sometimes God gives us knowledge that we can't account for. I know he will be absolutely perfect for our family. We can't wait to bring them both home.
There was a sweet little boy that walked up to me so naturally and gently put his arms around my legs. I picked him up and he hugged me so warmly that I just wished I could take him home too! It was certainly in sharp contrast to our own little boy. But, all of the other children seemed more responsive than our Teddy. I am glad that I knew somehow that our precious boy would not be warm at the first meeting, and I have absolutely no doubt that it was a match made in Heaven. Teddy has been through a lot. His mommy died nearly two years ago.