JRR: Ever So Much More So

Two years ago today, 15 hours after arriving in China, Pete and I were escorted to a large orphanage and brought in the side door to a little room, where we came face-to-face with our new daughter.  She was wearing a red athletic suit that said "NKIE," and she was full of smiles, kicking her feet back and forth in her chair, pointing and chatting away (none of which we could understand).

She quickly identified us as "Mama" and "Baba," and then about 20 minutes later, cheerfully put her hand into ours as we left the orphanage to drive to the first of the government offices we needed to visit to make the adoption final.  All day she was a happy little adventurer, especially if we kept giving her snacks, and her first emotional breakdown didn't come until that night when she realized she was staying in our hotel room overnight.  We called our Chinese guide/interpreter, and she talked to Jinna on the phone and somehow calmed her down so she could go to sleep.

Our first impressions of her was that she was energetic, very animated, very strong, and very brave.  Somehow she trusted us, complete strangers, who were very funny-looking, to whisk her away to a whole new country and family.

Sometimes people talk about the transformation that happens when an adopted child comes home and finally experiences love.  We think Jinna was loved at her orphanage.... When we went back to visit, many of the kids and workers were quite affectionate towards her and some cried when she left.  But she certainly didn't know the word "love" in Chinese, and probably no one had said it to her in the years she could remember.

Now she loooooves to talk about love.  She makes up songs about love, she writes notes daily to tell family members she loves them, she insists every night on hugs and kisses and exchanges of "I love you's before bed.

So while love is not new to her, we have seen tremendous growth in the 2 years that she's known about God's true love.

But I wouldn't say she's transformed.  When we met her she was animated, strong, and brave.  And she's still animated, strong, and brave.  To borrow a phrase from Homer Price, she is just "Ever So Much More So."

We love watching her grow more and more into who God created her to be.  She takes on every new challenge with gusto and doesn't shy away from much.

 And she is just what our family needed.