She's been our daughter for only six months, but already she's brought a huge impact to our family as we know it.  

Her story actually begins two years ago.  We first saw her picture on a Waiting Child list on the Internet; we were smitten with this then two-year-old with the pretty bow lips, silken, straight jet-black hair done up in two pigtails that stuck straight up, uptilted eyes of brown flecked with gold, and round-cheeked yellow-gold face.  We knew then that tiny Jian Mei Feng was the one for us.

We immediately started proceedings. We had no idea of all the paperwork, worry, appointments, or whatnot that goes along with the adoption process, but as each step was completed, we felt confident and more sure that we were one step closer in meeting our daughter.

We knew from the get=go that little Jian had special needs.  She was born with a cleft palate, but even despite the defect, we found her amazingly beautiful.  Pretty soon we didn't even see the defect as we looked at her picture; all we saw was a child who was in desperate need of a home and a family to call her very own.

We would worry about potential surgeries after she arrived, but for now, all we could do was concentrate on getting the steps in the adoption process finished and deciding on what we would call her once she was in America.  We decided on the name Audrie Heart: Audrie after my mother, Audrey (just spelled a little differently was all), and Heart because she had captured our hearts.  It seemed like the perfect name for our new daughter-to-be.  

Audrie Heart Jian Coleman.

For a long while, we didn't hear anything from the agency; we wondered if the adoption had fallen through.  We wept, cried, prayed over this child.  We wanted nothing more than to have her here with us or to hold her in our arms and tell her that we loved her.  It was the most agonizing time of our lives.

Then came the call we long waited for: the adoption had been approved.  Audrie Heart would be ours!! OURS!! OURS!!  Our daughter!1  At the news, we cried with relief and happiness; our wildest dreams were coming true .  By now, Audrie was now nearly four, but we didn't care: all we knew was that she would be arriving on an airplane from halfway around the world to America, and soon she would be a member of our family!

It was a miracle.

The day we picked her up was a day of fanfare, not to mention, tears (this time tears of joy) and smiles.  Bob (my husband) took the day off work, and I kept the other children (Justin, 12, and Sabyre, 4, home from school.  We wanted to be a complete family when we went to the airport to pick up Audrie Heart.  

When we first saw our daughter being led by a flight attendant, my heart leapt to my throat and my eyes filled with tears.  She was beautiful; she was just as I remembered, excepting that her hair was much longer (it now hung to near her waist).  She was still rather tiny though in size; she looked like a delicate little flower.

I knew enough Chinese to whisper in our new daughter's ear: "Hello, honey.  I'm your mommy.  I love you.  You're beautiful.  I am so glad you are here.  This is your family: your baba, your big brother and sister, and myself.  Welcome to America.  Welcome to our family!"

Little Audrie flinched and hung back as she saw us; she started crying, but soon the flight attendant calmed her by purring soft nonsense in Chinese in her ear.  The attendant gave us her papers, and bade us farewell; she then left and we were now left to embark on our new journey as a family.

At first, there were tears, tantrums, and language issues, but as Audrie got used to her new surroundings, her true personality came bursting forth, and she proved to be a wonderful child with a winning, sweet-natured personality.  Audrie was everything we could have ever wanted in a daughter.  She was perfect.

Flash forward six months, to the present day.  Audrie is scheduled to have her cleft palate repaired next month.  It will be a rather frightening time for her, but we will be there, at her side, every step of the way, to help her through this scary process, but oh, what a difference it will make for her!  She will no longer be subjected to stares, finger pointing, or comments from others; she will look like a normal child and will learn to speak better and more clearly, and she will have many happy (and not-so-happy) experiences.

Best of all, she will learn to know what having a family is truly about and she will learn to love and to give love freely to others.  She is truly a blessing from God, and we feel fortunate that we were chosen to be her forever family.  She is indeed our heart: our Audrie Heart.