I first saw Dang Yue on CCAI, our agency’s website. Staring solemnly out from the red winter coat, in a picture taken Christmas Eve 2008, there was something about her expression that captured my heart. I found myself reading her information everyday, saying prayers for her at night, and researching cerebral palsy in between. I just couldn’t get her out of my thoughts.

Then video became available. Dang Yue moved from simple black and white text of Chinese characters into a beautiful 3-D girl. We saw her dressed in a pretty silk pink dress smiling, laughing, coloring, and singing. As her joyful spirit revealed itself to us, we knew we were looking at our daughter. In one video she is standing against a wall singing a Chinese song which she ended with “bye mah”. Of course it brought tears to my eyes.

All preconceived notions about cerebral palsy flew out the window and we sent our Letter of Intent (LOI) August 12, 2009 and received our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) on September 8, 2009.

We’ve given her the name of Sarah Diane Yue. Her middle name, Diane, is after Mike’s mother, which means “goddess of the moon”. Yue, her Chinese first name, translates as “moon”. Finding out that their names have similar meanings took us by surprise, but it shouldn’t have since we know she was meant to be in our family.

Some of things that were written about her illustrate how well she will fit right in with our family:

“She is energetic and caring and plays well with others.

She is very social and makes friends easily.

She can help with the housework (hmmm, what’s that again?)

Dang Yue is very competitive, (could possibly describe Cody and me) sometimes blames others (sounds like a couple of boys I know) and enjoys chatting.

She is lively and cute and likes to play with other children.

She gets along well with other children and shares easily.

She likes to play with puzzles and dolls.

In the middle of August 2008, she went to live with a foster family (for that we are so thankful).

She is an adorable, beautiful little treasure.

We sincerely hope she is able to find a happy and perfect family.” (Okay, we are clearly not perfect, but we are a loving family who cannot wait to meet Dang Yue).