Greg has done most of the updating for this particular adoption, but today I feel moved to share some of my thoughts and feelings as we pursue this child. This week we received our Provisional Approval of our I-800. This is the next step in the process of getting a visa for S.
As I was sharing this progress this morning in small group prayer request time, I mentioned that the paperwork refers to her repeatedly as "S___ Unknown." Her last name is Unknown. This is literally a child with no last name. No family to call her own. She was found, abandoned, outside of a Catholic hospital young enough to still have an umbilical stump attached. She was then taken into the hospital and cared for in the NICU until she was stable. This hospital then transferred her to a Catholic orphanage named Swanthana designated for the care of mentally and physically handicapped girls. Here is a video taken at her orphanage: http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSGfZM4V27s
Since she is neither mentally nor physically handicapped, last April at age 2.5 yo, they transferred her care to another organization who made her adoptable. Vathsayla Charitable Trust (who now oversees her placement) received her with no last name, no birth date, no family history. They assigned a birth date, choosing a random day at least 9 days after her initial hospitalization. We will adjust that when we adopt her. She is now in a foster home supervised by VCT waiting to come home.
Only she doesn't know she is waiting. She doesn't know she has no last name. She doesn't know her birth date was assigned randomly. She doesn't know she was abandoned. She doesn't know she has a family who cannot wait to hold her, feed her, love her. She doesn't know she has in her future the options of dance lessons, soccer games, art classes, and other fun enrichments. She doesn't know we get King's Island passes every year and go as often as possible. She's never been to the beach and doesn't know what she's missing. She just doesn't know.
But we do. My heart just aches knowing what she is still waiting for. This rejected child will find acceptance. This abandoned child will find haven. This orphan will be treasured. She will have a mother and a father. She will have a last name. She will no longer be an orphan. She will be a daugher. My daughter.
