Jillian in Action

Last December, when we first started looking into the possibility of adopting Jillian, the adoption agency provided us with several pictures of Jillian and one precious video. I haven't posted the video before because, technically, we were not supposed to post pictures or video of Jillian prior to taking custody of her. Now, as the date of our travel grows very close, I'm not sure that I see any reason not to put it here, especially since we are not using her Chinese name. 

 

We have put a lot of stock in this little 90-second video from (we're guessing) three years ago. We've watched it with health care professionals. We've analyzed it closely and have drawn conclusions about who this little girl is.  Are we right?  I guess we'll find out in the weeks, months and years ahead. I'll say, though, that when we watch this priceless video we see a little girl with grit and optimism, an overcomer and a charmer. Enjoy . . .

Since I haven't published the earliest pictures yet, let me post them here as well.  This one is the very first photo we ever saw of Jillian:

At that point, we knew that she had the name Jillian--though I don't think we understood that this was probably a name created just for the agency website--and that she had cerebral palsy.  That's about it.  I showed Jeannette this picture and told her I thought we should think about adopting her.  I requested more information and they sent us the video above and the following photos, which I assume show her at about the age of five.

 And I'm sorry, but how could anyone not fall in love with this face?