Year in Review
Here is an excerpt from the Smalley Christmas letter describing the story of Annie ….
Well, you might be thinking that this doesn’t sound like an eventful year; however, this is where our quiet Arkansas life changes! Many of you know that we have felt called to adopt over the years, especially since I was adopted. Approximately 5 years ago, when we were speaking at a family camp in Wisconsin, we felt a deep burden to adopt from China. We decided that we wanted a little girl and we would name her “Antoinette Rose” after my precious mom “Rosalie Antoinette”. We have prayed for our “Annie” regularly over the years; however, since nothing materialized we just assumed that God had other plans for our family. At the end of February, our dear friend shared about his visit to an orphanage in China. He told about a precious little girl he had interacted with who had a “special” left hand. We even prayed for her over the next several nights. But never in our wildest dreams would we have guessed what would occur over the next week. Through an email that our friend had sent to China to introduce us to the American orphanage directors, we learned that this beautiful little girl’s name was Annie….the name we had been praying about for the past 5 years!
We have since had the honor of learning a whole lot about Annie and we deeply desire for her to become our daughter. Annie is 2 years old and is in an amazing orphanage in China. She has a few special needs; however, she has already had several surgeries to correct a cleft lip and palate and a club foot. She will need surgery on her left hand. We are overjoyed at the thought of adding to our family—the fourth child we always wanted. We have been “indoctrinated” rapidly into the adoption process…which lives up to everything I have heard about it…difficult. We have been trying to save the needed funds rapidly…and we are currently preparing bedrooms, and toddler toys! We would covet your prayers and support as we continue on this unbelievable adventure. We will keep you updated on our journey back to China to bring our daughter home! We are hoping this will happen by late spring, early summer.