Magdalene

It is a long a winding road that brought us to Maggie,
and her to us. It is difficult to know where to begin.
But it is a road that God clearly brought us to, and we
look back and rejoice over all that He has done, and
continues to do in our family. Our thoughts and
attitudes have changed, and as our family has grown,
we have learned and grown as well.

It was not long after our third child was born that we
became strongly impressed that all children are a
blessing and gift from the Lord, and we had no
reason or basis for rejecting that blessing. Although
we would welcome and even prayed for another child,
it was ten years before I would become pregnant
again. It was devastating to us all when four months
later this child died.

Maggie, exhausted from crying,
soon after meeting us.

Soon after this, in the spring of
2002, I first encountered
someone who was adopting a
child from China. I had never
even thought about adoption,
nor had I heard much about
international adoption at all. It
was a new concept to me. But
when this 18 month old little
girl toddled into our home with
her little squeaky shoes on,
and plopped down into my lap
on the floor, I was startled to
discover something about
myself that I had never
imagined before. My
immediate thought was, “I
could do this.” Our three
children were then 14, 11 and
10 years old. They were all
enchanted by this little girl as
well. Providentially, my
husband had just come home
for lunch as my friend and her
daughter were leaving, so he,
too, witnessed her charms.
After they left, I believe my face
said it all, and he told me to
“check it out”.

Since then I have found that
most people who adopt
internationally have planned to,
or hoped to, for years, and
often have friends or relatives
who have adopted as well.
Except for this one family, we
knew nobody, and I truly knew
nothing at all about the
process, or what to expect. In
my usual way, I checked it out
very thoroughly, and for
weeks. We chose an agency,
and I devoured all the
information I could. I joined
some yahoo groups to
communicate with others in
the process of adopting, and
learn all I could from others
who had adopted before. And
we collected masses of
paperwork. Bit by bit and piece
by piece it all finally came
together, and our papers were
sent to China in December of
2002.

Our first sight of
Maggie.

She cried at
first, and
looking back at
the photos, I
can see how
sad and lost
she felt. But I
did not know
her yet.

By the
second day,
we got our
first smile,
in the
mirror, in
the elevator.

And there were more smiles where that came
from. But all her smiles combined, could not
compare to the joy she has brought to our lives
since that day.

Our last
days in
China,
ready to
go home.

To raise money for
us to all go to China,
Jordan, Hannah and
Canaan made
Mei-Wa dolls, red
thread bracelets, and
red thread key chains.

Magdalene Ruth Limiao Baker
On October 1st, 2003, we first saw Maggie’s face in a photo on our computer.
"Fu Li Miao, female, was found January 25, 2003 at the door of the Birth Control Service in Hengdong district. She was wearing a black and
yellow cotton clothes and a blue woolen hat. There was milk powder, bottle, clothes and a birth information note with her. In that note her
birth parents gave her birthday, which was January 24 at 2:16 pm."
This is all we knew about her. All that was left for us to do, was go and get her.