My husband, John, and I adopted our daughter, Ji Zhou Lu, now named Maya Zhou Lu, from China this past December 2010. She is 2½ years old. To say she is a complete joy to our family is an understatement. She is happy, silly and adds so much love to our family.

We adopted her from the Waiting Child List. Our LID was February 10, 2010. We were fully prepared to wait many years for a healthy child. Then we read all these wonderful adoption stories from people who adopted from the Waiting Child List so we decided to look into it more.

Cori called me in June to tell me about Maya and I instantly knew she was meant to be our daughter the minute we saw her photo (as cliché as that sounds) and took a leap of faith. Maya has a repaired cleft lip and still requires surgery on her cleft palate. Other than that, she is completely healthy. She has an abundance of energy and happiness in her little body!

The amazing thing about Maya is that her cleft palate has hardly affected her eating or speech. Our guides in China where astonished by her Chinese language skills, especially having a cleft palate. She is now picking up English at a rapid pace. She says numerous English words and communicates with no problem! We love the way she pronounces our dog's name – Lola. She affectionately calls her "Lalo"! For whatever reason she switches the "o" and "a" around! She absolutely loves music and dancing. The minute she hears any type of music, she instantly begins dancing. It's added a lot of humor to our lives!

My best friend is an occupational therapist. When she met Maya she could not believe how advanced she is with her fine motor and social skills. She's actually ahead in all those areas. Our pediatrician also confirmed this. Her orphanage took very good care of her and she really learned a lot from them. She loves to play with her dolls. She dresses them, feeds them bottles, cuddles with them and gives them kisses.

Every person who has met Maya cannot believe how well she has adapted to her new life. It's like she has lived with us from day one! She loves to greet people when they come to our door with an enthusiastic "Hi!" She even blows kisses to our UPS driver. His heart melted when he met her. He just dropped off a gift for her – a beautiful blanket she loves to snuggle up in. When I say everyone falls in love with Maya the minute they meet her, I'm not kidding. Our two children, Madeline (age 14) and William (age 9), are Maya's two best pals. The three of them play on the floor and Maya loves to follow both of them around. When Will's friends come over, Maya is right there in the middle of a group of boys playing happily. She loves the attention she gets from her big sister and her friends. The girls fawn over her and Maya in turn makes them laugh nonstop. Maya has discovered that mom's makeup is totally fun to play with. Unfortunately, it's not so fun to scrub off a little face!

We know Maya has quite a road ahead of her with her surgeries, but we've put things in perspective. We have a great surgeon, she's healthy and we know she'll make a full recovery and lead a happy, normal life! If you can find it in your heart to adopt a child from the Waiting Child List, I can assure you that you will find true love in your new child! We have!

Kris, John, Madeline, William and Maya Rose