Lucy at Last

We held our little Lucy for the first time this morning. She was so calm and comfortable in our arms, it felt completely natural to be with her. At one point, after no noise from her at all, she looked up at me and began to girgle and coo-I wonder what it was she was telling me, but it felt as if she was letting us know she'd been waiting for us, and she was happy to finally see us. We were with her less than an hour, and spent all the time sitting on the ground with her in our arms, while other darling babies rolled around and crawled among us. One little one was terribly afraid of us, we must look so strange to her. I was so glad to see she could be comforted by one of the nannies who work there, such a good sign when babies feel loved by another. I had been "coached" by a very close friend (hi Jody) to remain positive and try not to be too emotional, and I feel I did a pretty good job, as it was extremely difficult to set Lucy down in her crib and walk away from her until tomorrow. I felt it also difficult not to hold all the babies. It is so natural for a mother to go about mothering, and the easiest type of mothering is loving a child.

I visited an orphanage in Haiti a few years ago when I traveled with our dear friend Susie to help her bring their two great kids home (Hi Johnsons:). The conditions in that orphanage were so poor, the children in such distress, that it truly affected me. I knew Lucy was in an orphanage in a different country, but my concern for the conditions there has been a struggle from the first time I realised our daughter was in a foreign land. How comforted I felt at the sight of this orphanage. Clothing clean and hanging on the clothes line. Bottles washed and set out to dry. Workers dressed in uniform, quietly and happily changing diapers and talking to babies. They even had some things to say about Lucy. Appearantly she's not as quiet when she's hungry or tired...we'll see. Anyway, it was such a different atmosphere, such different feelings. I am so humbled to know the Lord has watched over Lucy as best he could until we could come to her.

Tomorrow we can return to her, visit again for a few hours. We have the entire afternoon free today and just don't feel much like being tourists, we are so anxious to see Lucy again. On Monday we'll sign some papers and hopefully soon Lucy will be in our arms for good.

thanks to all who've done so much to support us while we experience this. Those of you at home caring for our kids (hi kids!) are angels to a needy family at this time-truly Grandmothers and friends are carrying a heavy load as we wait for the rest of this story to unfold.

Pray we'll be home soon. We can't wait for you to meet our little Lucy Duc.