Day 3- God Smiles on Us

All days are precious, but there are a handful that one might consider extraordinary in one's life. This one was one of those days. Monte and I are of one mind and heart that the baby we saw, Deanna, is the one for us. Cholepan is very sweet and we hope she finds a good home soon. But, Deanna captured our hearts. The medical reports reinforced our decision. We will continue to pray for baby Cholepan and all the babies at the Karakastek baby house. They all certainly deserve better.

Here is the first picture taken from yesterday, when they first placed her in Monte's arms.

Diggin' for gold?

We see the sun for the first time today.

We will visit the baby house 2 hours each day for the next 14 days to complete the "bonding period". We can then apply to the courts to make everything official. More on that process later. As we are leaving the baby house for the day, everything sinks in and comes to a head for me emotionally. I think about the other kids we saw at the baby house - lots of them - and how they're drifting through the baby and children's homes of the Kazakh government. I think about how that was most likely Deanna's future and how she was a further disadvantage being a minority. Yesterday, she was drifting through this cold harsh system. But, today everything has changed, everything is different. Today, she is our daughter. I felt God smile down on us today, or maybe he was sitting right there with us in that remote village in Kazakhstan. As we drive, I play this song in my head:

Lord, Let your light, Light of Your face, Shine on us

Lord, Let your light, Light of Your face, Shine on us

That we, may be saved

That we, may have life

To find our way in the darkest night

Let your light, Shine on us

Today, I felt He did. Today was a great day - an awesome day.

Some additional information

With all of the activity, we have yet to settle on a name. We have time to decide, right? Here are some hard facts to hold you over.

Her given name: Deanna

Birth Mother's Family name:Cherdizova

Nationality: Kazakhstani (the most economically advanced of the "stans".)

Ethnicity: Kurdish

4th largest ethnic group in the Middle East behind Turks, Arabs, Persians; a nomadic group who lost the game of musical chairs when the Brits were carving up the region after WWI. The Kurds ended up without a country. Here is a map where the Kurds reside, mostly mountainous parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq (think Chemical Ali), and Iran. They also have a small minority in Armenia, Kazakhstan, and other countries.