Jilliana Has Normal Hearing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Within days of meeting our precious Jiliana we knew that what we were told about Jilliana was false.  The Orphanage knew it all along.  The Nannies always stated in their updates that there was no hearing loss.  But we were told that the disruption was due to hearing loss.

It took a long time for us to get in to the audiologist.  If we had felt that there was hearing loss we would have found another audiologist to go to, but since we did not see a problem we decided to wait as she had so many other Dr.'s appointments.

We had our appointment on June 30th and there was no hearing loss detected.  We will go back in 6 months for a re-check, but everything at this time with her hearing is normal!!!!!!

This is from our Red Thread Story Post:
But little did I know that God had a different plan for us. 
One of the advocates sent me an e-mail telling me that she didn’t know if I was looking or not but that she had two files she would like me to look at.  One was of a three year old and one a four year old.  I told her briefly what had happened but I told her to send me the three-year old one.  She told me that she would be three in November, that she had a repaired cleft lip, had hearing loss, and that she was from a disruption in May.  She warned me that she was “super cute”, which was my reaction when I opened the file with her picture.  Because of what had happened before, I told myself that I would not fall in love with this little one until we knew that it was God’s plan for our family.    
I showed her file to Mike.  We needed to find out more about her.  I asked the advocate if she knew anymore about why the family might have disrupted.  She said that the family went to China expecting to adopt a child with a repaired cleft lip, but when they found out there were other needs, they decided to disrupt. 
Mike and I both prayed about this.   Cleft lip was a need that we had listed on our homestudy that we would be open to.  We had never considered hearing loss before.   But God had just given us a Son-in-Law last year. And guess what?  He is in his last year of audiology school.   In retrospect, could this be any clearer?  We didn’t read the signs that God was sending us yet. 
We decided that we would send what little we had on her hearing to our Son-in-Law, Nick.  He was able to look at what we had and also send it to others to look at.  Everyone felt if the tests were right that her hearing could be corrected with hearing aids. 
I tried to find out who the family was that disrupted from the advocate, but she did not know.  I was hoping that by some miracle I could talk to the family.  The advocate did send me several pictures that were taken when care packages had been sent from the other family.  I even contacted the care package company but they did not return my e-mail and I really did not think that they could tell me who the family was.  But I was hoping they could contact them and see if they would talk to me.  I never heard anything.  I just needed to know why? 
We then contacted our agency and asked to lock her file.   They were able to lock her file for us giving us 72 hours to make a decision.  This was on Thursday, August 5th.  Then a miracle happened.  I found out who the family was and I was able to find out if they would be willing to talk to us either directly or through the person that knew them.  We set up a time to talk. (Now I was feeling that God was directing us on this path and all we had to do was be open to what God was planning for us.)  After getting off the phone I was told nothing that would make me not continue with the adoption.  I was also able to get the Dr.’s number that had reviewed the file and talked to them while they were in China.  I put a call into the Dr. but I did not get to talk to her before we were due to make a decision.  Mike and I both felt that this was what God was asking us to do, so we sent our LOI (Letter of Intent ) on August  7th and on August 10th we had our PA or pre-approval! 
On Thursday I was finally able to talk to the Dr. and still there was nothing said that made us change our minds or feel that this was not God’s plan for our family.  
During all of this time I made myself not look at her sweet little face and not fall in love because of what had happened before, but now there was a peace that God had given us the most perfect gift.  And because of this other family we have so many more pictures and information than we ever had on any of our previous adoptions.  I like to picture God with a needle and the “red thread” that knit together this perfect plan. 
Psalm 139:13-18  For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;  your works are wonderful,  I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.   When I was woven together in the depths, of the earth,  your eyes saw my uniformed body.  All the days ordained for me where written in your book before one of them came to be.  How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast is the sum of them!  Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.  When I awake, I am still with you. 

Introducing our new daughter: 
Jilliana Elise Jihong 


And then this:


A new little piece to Jilliana's story 

The blogging, yahoo group, forums, internet, are amazing.  The other day I got an e-mail from someone telling me they had a little piece of Jilliana's story to share with us.  A friend of hers told her that she had seen the picture I put on of Jilliana's with the Year of the Ox horns.


  She knew that her friend had tried to adopt Jilliana after she was placed back on the shared list after the disruption.  The family had seen Jilliana on the shared list and tried to get a waiver to adopt her.  They did not know of the disruption or the hearing loss but they still would have adopted her if it had been possible.  They were denied the waiver and were crushed.  They are now in the process of adopting another beautiful girl from China.


Here is the amazing part.  If we had seen Jilliana's file back in May we would not have been able to adopt her.  With our agency you need to be home 6 months and that date for us was in August.  We were sent Jilliana's file August 3rd.  Also, we were not even thinking at that point of adopting any more.  Everything about this adoption has pointed to God and his plan and our willingness (at times) to listen.  So when this family could not adopt her the file went back on the shared list.  I now know of two other families that also looked at her file before we were sent her file by Amy (The Advocate) but God chose us to be her family.  Now that pieces are starting to be filled in I will need to go back and rewrite the story that I posted before.  I think that someday Jilliana will want to know about how many people wanted her and cared for her before she was even here.

So this is where we are today.  Jilliana has normal hearing.  We are attending speech one day a week.  Her speech therapist thinks she is one of the smartest little things she has ever met.  We have had our preliminary Craniofacial Team Visit, but will not meet with the whole team until the end of July to find out what our next course of action is. 

We are loving every minute with our bubbly, funny, beautiful, precious treasure. (Except for when she sleeps with her feet in our faces:) )  The girls think she is the sweetest thing and are enjoying having a little sister.  She is a little firecracker and talks non-stop.  She loves to sing and I have lost count of the songs that she can sing.  She has the cutest expressions and I love her with a love that cannot be described.  We are so thankful for what God gave us and that we were open to his call.