We are taking it a day at a time with our new daughter, who came to us from Romania.

We had been trying to adopt a child for years; it is only by God's sovereign grace that we got our daughter two months ago.  It was a very happy day when we got "the call", the call that told us that a child was soon to be on our way.  We didn't care if the child was a girl or a boy, or if the child was white, black, Oriental, Latino, disabled or healthy:  as long as we were getting a child, we were more than ready to love on him/her.

We were told that we were getting a child from Romania, an orphan.  Nobody seemed to want her:  she had some serious behavioral issues and was thought to be mentally disabled.  She was at least six or seven, according to the adoption agency's report.

We didn't care.  We wanted this child, disabled or otherwise.  Our dream of parenting a child was going to come true .

A month later, Gayaney Magdalena, aged six, came into our lives.  Our world hasn't been the same since.

We were smitten with this tiny peanut of a child with the big, liquid brown eyes, straggly straw-blonde hair, and tiny, triangular-shaped face.  She reminded us of a broken little kitten who needed a lot of love and guidance.  She was beautiful!

At the age of six, Gayaney doesn't speak; we hope that one day she will be able to.  We are in the process of getting her settled in a physical therapy program as well as speech and occupational therapies:  anything to help her grow and develop.  We will do everything possible to help her succeed in life.

Right now, Gayaney doesn't walk or talk.  We don't know if she was abused back home in her native country of Romania or if she had been sick or what ...  something apparently affected this child so much as to render her practically mute and facing serious behavioral problems, including bedwetting on a nightly basis, rocking, banging her head, and biting herself (and us).  She has some incredibly deep-seated problems, and we are more than ready to deal with them head on.

It is going to take an extraordinary amount of patience and know-how (and plenty of prayers) to bring this child out of her dark, uncertain world and into one filled with love, support, and safety.

Gayaney is our first child.  That is okay.  We don't want any more children until her behavioral and physical issues have been dealt with; we don't want her to become a danger to our other children if we had any.  We want the world for this child; we want her to overcome her uncertain past and to have a future where she will know in her own way that she is loved and wanted by us.

*to be continued.*