Do You Believe In Miracles?

by Karen Kaminski

Have you ever thought about miracles? Who receives them? Who gives them? How do you repay them? I have thought about those questions. I can honestly say that I never thought I would receive a miracle.

We are a very common ordinary family, but God must have felt we were worthy of a miracle. It all started in February 2004. We had been home from China for 7 months with our very precious little girl whom we adopted at 8 months old. She was the light of our life, along with our very incredible two boys, ages 10 and 7. Even with a very full life and full hearts, we still felt the need to bring home one more child to be complete as a family. We found our newest daughter, age 5, on a waiting child list from China, and fortunately she had a large grant from Brittany's Hope. The grant would enable us to pursue her adoption. We researched her special need, stared at her picture, searched our souls, our hearts, had major family discussions, and finally decided that, yes... she was our daughter. We knew it wouldn't be easy. After all, she was five years old. She had been in the same foster family for the last three years of her life. To her, she was with a family that took care of her, sent her to school, gave her meals, and loved her. We knew that without proper medical care and diet, she could become very sick due to her special need. We knew the best thing for her would be to come to our amazing country. We are blessed with incredible medical professionals and medicines. We knew we could provide her a “forever family” with lots of love and attention.

We prepared ourselves mentally, physically, and financially. We knew the number one thing to take with us for the adjustment of our new daughter was our two sons. They are loving and caring and we wanted to bring the boys with us to experience this beautiful process. Our boys would provide comfort and support for our new daughter. We said our goodbyes to our precious little girl that we were leaving behind. I feared I wouldn't make it without her through the two weeks needed for the adoption. I worried that I was making a terrible decision by not taking her and that she would never forgive me. Thank God, those worries were all for nothing. She was just fine, missed us, but certainly forgave us.

The day arrived; we waited in the hotel room. Waiting to hear the elevator bell go off, alerting us that our daughter was here, we were about to meet her: Hong, Shengying. Would she love us, would she accept us as her new family, would she be scared? The bell went off and there at the doorway was the most precious, scared little girl I have ever laid eyes on. She was wearing a pink polka dotted coat; she had two small backpacks on her back, and carried a half eaten hard-boiled egg. The two Chinese women with her shoved her into the room, spoke briefly to her in Chinese and left. She stared at us with the most pitiful sad eyes we had ever seen. When we tried to touch her, she broke down in tears. She cried and cried and cried. She shoved us away and refused to let us take her coat off. She was sweating profusely and vomiting from crying so desperately. She was screaming for her Mama and wouldn't take any comfort from us. We finally realized the only way to handle this was to let her cry until she couldn't cry any more. She continued to cry for several hours until she collapsed from exhaustion. We had never witnessed such pain as this. There is no greater sorrow for a child than to be placed with strangers as the only people you know walk out and leave you. She must have felt abandoned and desperate. To see this pain was life-changing. It changed us as parents; it changed us as human beings. It was heartwrenching. We feared she would never accept us. Our boys were traumatized. We worried that they would not recover from witnessing such grief.

She awoke after two hours. I watched her dig through her bookbag and retrieve a hard-boiled egg. She was very hungry. She tried to peel her egg but couldn't. I reached over with a smile, and helped her peel it. I handed her the egg and she took a bite. A few minutes passed and we thought we had made progress. Unfortunately, she broke down again, and cried for another hour. Finally she started to play with some toys that we brought for her. I took her to the bathroom where she first saw a western style toilet. I showed her how to use it. When she flushed it, she giggled. I knew in my heart that we were making progress. She was sweating from the crying, so I decided to give her a bath. As I ran the bath water, she watched with amazement and excitement. I helped her get undressed and into the tub. We smiled at each other, and she hasn't stopped smiling since.

This is the beautiful and amazing miracle that we received: acceptance and love from our new daughter. She is our daughter through and through. We love her and she loves us back. Love is the most amazing miracle and the most wonderful of all gifts, and we have it. We've been blessed beyond words.

Our life has forever changed. There have been difficult times, but we never regret our decision. We are thankful to God, to China, and of course, to Brittany's Hope for the adoption of this beautiful little girl, now Stephanie Shengying.

She tells me every day that she loves her new life, she loves the food we eat, the clothes she has, and the games we play. She loves her brothers and her little sister. She's helpful, funny, and smart. She has spirit like no other. I am still amazed that she could go from the saddest little girl to the happiest, most peaceful child in the world. It's a true miracle!