The Land of Hand

This is Joshua.  Julie and I made the decision June 22, 2006 to adopt him from Ch*na.  He is a special little boy  who has some hand and foot abnormalities that put him in the special needs category.  What led us to this decision is a phone call from our social worker at lifeline adoptions telling us we should consider something other than Ukra*ne since there were concerns when it would be open again for adoptions.  After looking at Guat*mala and deciding that we didn’t feel God’s leading there we decided to wait more on God. 

Julie was looking around the Lifeline website and discovered the Special Needs area of the site and found "Eli".  We couldn’t see him because the picture was blurred, but after reading about him we told Lifeline that we would like to know more about him. They put a hold on him so that we could have a week to pray about God’s will for this little boy.  We received more information from the social worker about him and after 4 days we knew that God had been holding this little boy for us.

We have just begun the process, but he is already beginning to be knitted to our hearts.  "Eli" was the name our agency had assigned to him, but we have decided to name him Joshua.  His Ch*nese name is Su Shen Yuan.  "Su" for the Suzhou City Welfare Institute where he lived for the first 14 months of his life, "Shen" for the year he was born (2004) and "Yuan" for the hope his care givers have for him.  We wanted to include a part of his heritage in his English name and will keep Yuan for his middle name.  The name Yuan can mean many things, but it is a name of nobility, harmony and hope.    Here is a little information about him:

Eli is a precious little boy from the Suzhou (city) Social Welfare Institute in Jiangsu Province. He was born on April 10, 2004. He was found with both of his hands deformed (webbed fingers) and both of his feet deformed (webbed toes). When he was 4 months old, he looked around when he heard sounds. When mealtime came, his caregiver pushed a meal-cart, and he would turn his head to take a look. When he was 5 months old, he could turn his body around. He turned his body around often. He lifted his head up high, and his big eyes looked around. When he was 6 months old, his caregiver tried to put him inside one walking aid. His legs were hung in the air at the beginning because his legs didn’t have strength then. His legs became strong after practice, and he could stand inside his walking aid. When he was 7 months old, he could move to his caregiver using his walking aid to get food, and he put food in his mouth. He would put toys in his mouth to taste them too. When he was 8 months old, his caregiver hugged him and talked to him. He smiled as if he were talking to his caregiver. When he was 9 months old, he could crawl. He could stand up straight by holding his arms. When he was 10 months old, he could understand his caregiver. He could walk by holding both of his hands. When he was 11 months old, he was the first one to run to his caregiver using his walking aid when he saw food. He was everywhere in his baby room. When he was one year old, he could walk a few steps without his caregiver’s help. When he was 14 months old, he could walk anywhere without help. His deformed hands and feet didn’t affect their function. He could get biscuits to eat, and he could use pens to draw with. His deformed toes didn’t affect his walking. We sent him to a foster family to benefit his physical and mental growth. He didn’t adapt to his new home at the beginning, but did after about 2 weeks. He got along with his new family. He was a little introverted. He was naughty if he knew a place. He was shy and quiet if he didn’t know a place. He didn’t want to be hugged by strangers, and he didn’t like to take pictures. His height is 80.0cm, weight is 10.0kg, head measurement is 46.8cm, chest measurement is 48.8cm, and he has 20 teeth according to our children’s hospital.

We will know more soon and will post it here as we get it.  Thank you for praying with us for the health and care by God for Joshua.

Here are a couple more pictures of Joshua: