How Does One Choose a Child?

We didn’t know the answer.

Staring at sweet faces, perusing profiles for birth stats and medical info, trying to make sense of it all... orphans... left behind because of their disabilities. Which one was meant to be my child? I stressed, I cried, I prayed for peace.

In February, I found Arina from Russia. In all my visits to RR I had never seen her before and something about her struck me. I wondered if I had found my baby. I googled her name. It is Greek and means “peace”.

Our family agreed that she was meant to be ours and we initiated the adoption process. I’ll skip the parts about the placement agency stringing us along for ten weeks... Finally another placement agency delivered the news that Arina was no longer available. We will never know why. A hard and tear-filled weekend followed.

I thought about our selection process... about why I was even trying to choose a child... about why we were adopting... I was looking for an augury... pictures, birthdays, names... divine guidance of a sort. I was looking for the perfect child for us. How typical of me to want to do God’s work my way.

On the following Monday, Andrea contacted us about Peach. While my husband and I were talking it over, she emailed about Mallory. We weren’t looking at three year olds. We weren’t looking for an infant with a life-threatening heart defect. We weren’t looking for two children.

But then again, when I was pregnant with our babies, we weren’t “looking” for any specific child. We were ready and willing to take the children God sent to us. We talked about this, together realizing that we were not able to know how to choose a child and so we trusted that God had chosen for us (um, no, I’m not saying Andrea is God, though she sure is his hands and feet.)

Once we decided to take them, I was overwhelmed with love for them and my husband was filled with hope for them. With love and hope came peace, and so my prayer was answered after all.

Who Are Mallory and Peach?

Mallory and Peach are two little girls with much in common. They were both born with an extra chromosome, resulting in Down syndrome, and they were both abandoned at birth because of it. They now live together on borrowed time in an Eastern European orphanage.

Mallory is three years old. She has huge blue eyes and a charming grin. When an orphan child with Down syndrome in Eastern Europe turns four, she is transferred to a mental institution where she is left to live out the rest of her life. But that will not be Mallory’s story. Beautiful, gifted Mallory will be coming home to us to take her place as a valued daughter and sister.

Peach is just about 7 months old. She has a very serious heart defect that requires surgery ASAP. Her doctors do not believe that she will live through the surgery unless it is performed by an experienced pediatric cardiac surgeon like those available in the USA. This little darling is beating the odds everyday and we pray that we get her home in time to save her life.

Right now, Mallory and Peach are orphans, far from our love, but still they are children of God and He has not forgotten them. Soon these little girls will have a mommy and daddy, sisters and brothers, grandmas and grandpas, aunts, uncles, cousins, and a whole circle of friends. They will have good nutrition, quality family time, affection galore, and access to excellent health care. They will blossom into the sweet blessings God designed them to be and we will have the joy of being a part of their lives.