An update!

Waiting for updates during the adoption process is hard! Many months have gone by without any information about our Lulu. The saving grace is that, in due time, she will be in our arms forever.

I reached out to our agency once again last week asking for them to try again, fully expecting nothing from Lulu's orphanage who hasn't been forthcoming with details. Last week, we finally received a couple of sweet pictures, one of which you can see below. When I showed the picture to Charlie, he said, "I thought Lulu was a girl!" The boys also thought she resembled a Power Ranger. I love their funny minds, and we'll transform her into a little Princess soon enough!

Then, this week, we were nicely surprised with the following update about our daughter: 

"Now she is almost 6 years old. She is suffering from left body hemiplegia and left strephenopodia.  She has receiving rehabilitation training since 2015. After one year's rehabilitation training, her grasping capability has improved very much. Now her balance capacity is not good when she is walking. She is a lovely, optimistic girl. Now she is healthy and seldom get sick. She is receiving cognitive training during recently and she knows many colors and animals. Each time when she is receiving rehabilitative training, she always participates actively. She is an excellent child."

Most of these updates fill our hearts with joy...Lulu's receiving therapy! That is huge, and until last year it wasn't happening. We are thankful to know she's getting help and that it's working for her! We also loved reading that she "actively participates" in the process. Sweet. And she's healthy! Our little lady seldom gets sick. Blessing.

The other obvious *LOVES* of this update--they've described our daughter with words of "lovely," and "optimistic" and referred to her as an excellent child. As a friend said--of course she is...she's a Murphy!

I have to be totally transparent here. There is a bit of fear involved with an unknown medical condition we've never parented before. I am so thankful for the Facebook groups in our adoption community which provide so much support and encouragement, as well as friends who've walked this path before us. We know, from early videos, that Lulu's walked with a bit of a gait as a result of her hemiplegia (we suspect this is actually contracture but is recorded as clubbed foot on her medical record) but this update left us wondering if maybe it's gotten worse. We can only pray that her condition can be improved with medical intervention and therapy once we get her home. Will you please pray with us? It's so hard to wonder, but our God is bigger, and He somehow takes that fear and replaces it with fresh HOPE each day--hope for her healing, and hope for a future of love and joy.

So today we celebrate the wonderful gift of this update, and we rest in trusting our Heavenly Father with Lulu's life. That is all we need. We'll be there soon, beautiful girl!