REMEMBERING...AND THANKFUL

MANY HAVE ASKED IF WE WOULD SHARE AGAIN THE MIRACULOUS STORY OF HOW QUYNH JOINED OUR FAMILY. TWO YEARS AGO, MARVIN WROTE THIS BEAUTIFUL SYNOPSIS OF HER LIFE UP TO THAT POINT.

HAVING NOW LIVED A FEW OF NEXT CHAPTERS , I AM AGAIN "SENT TO MY CHILL BUMP PLACE" , AND TO A NEW LEVEL OF GRATEFULNESS, AS I MARVEL AT ALL HE HAS DONE IN HER LIFE AND OURS.







ORIGINAL MESSAGE FOLLOWS .THIS WAS ORIGINALLY SENT ABOUT THIS TIME IN APRIL TWO YEARS AGO.

Dear Friends (and soon to be friends) of Quynh,

WE ARE WRITING TODAY TO TELL YOU ABOUT QUYNH (THAT’S HER IN THE PHOTO.)



THESE ARE TWO OF OUR FIRST PHOTOS OF QUYNH. SHE HAD JUST BEEN STABILIZED AND WAS 3 DAYS OLD. God has placed this lovely Vietnamese baby girl into our care. She has captured our hearts and she will capture yours! If you haven’t heard her miraculous story yet, then keep reading to see yet another example of God’s amazing grace.

YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY HEARD QUYNH’S STORY AND HAVE BEEN PRAYING FOR HER. IF SO, WE ARE WRITING TO UPDATE YOU ON HER FANTASTIC PROGRESS! You may already know all about this precious little girl and you may have already been praying for her and sharing her story with others and helping us with her medical expenses and IF SO, WE WISH TO EXTEND OUR DEEPEST APPRECIATION.. Quynh is a wonderful blessing to everyone she meets. God has been so good and He has already used many dear friends to show His love for sweet Quynh.

MORE ON THIS IN A MINUTE, BUT FIRST, LET ME SHARE HER AMAZING JOURNEY SO FAR…

We estimate that Quynh was born on June 22, 2007. Within a few hours of her birth, this precious baby girl, was left beside a road in the Vietnamese province where VCI does most of our adoption and humanitarian work. Our Vietnam director was called and we took her into our care immediately.

Because she was abandoned, the director of the Quynh Luu District Hospital named her by inverting the name of the political district where she was found and adding the common middle name “Thi”. So her name became Luu Thi Quynh. Since then, everyone has simply been calling her Quynh (pronounced "Quinn".)

But how to solve her MEDICAL MYSTERY? Every hospital and clinic in the district and the province and even in Hanoi was stumped by her condition and clueless about solutions. As you can see in the picture, her legs are very large and purple and bumpy. One leg is shorter and her foot did not form, while the other foot and toes are unfortunately quite deformed and are many times larger than normal. What the picture doesn’t reveal is that she was (and still is) very prone to bleed without warning. Several doctors thought she had gangrene or some other immediately life-threatening condition and proposed amputating both legs! We’ve since learned that amputation would have been the worst choice!

While she was still in Vietnam and we were working for her rescue literally day and night, she was repeatedly transferred from hospital to hospital for evaluation. We were constantly concerned about the poor conditions and lack of attention she received. So VCI hired a full-time person to stay with her 24/7 in the hospitals since they were crowded and nursing care was minimal. For example, at the National Pediatric Hospital, Quynh shared a room with four other children, each with significant infectious diseases.

During this time God did an amazing thing which showed us that He was holding Quynh’s little life in His hand and that He has a wonderful plan for her life. At the same time that Quynh was hospitalized in Hanoi and we were trying everything we could to persuade the American Embassy to grant her a temporary visa, a VCI adopting family arrived in Hanoi to get the visa for their newly adopted daughter, Da. Ryan and Linn O’Keefe (and Da) were delayed for several weeks by the Embassy. As they waited, they took the opportunity to visit Quynh in the hospital and were so taken by her and bothered by the hospital conditions that they actually brought Quynh and the caregiver back to the Daewoo Hotel and provided a room for them there! Ryan even took Quynh on her trips to doctors and helped us fight for her visa. In God’s perfect timing, Da’s visa was approved the same week that Quynh’s visa was granted! Then Ryan and Da actually escorted Quynh with them to Florida and a week later to Arkansas to bring her to us!

Quynh has a condition so rare that less than 1000 cases are known worldwide!

She has Klippel-Trenawney Syndrome (KTS), which affects her vascular and lymphatic systems producing discolored swelling and "malformations" on both legs. From the waist up she is a beautiful, normal, happy, smart baby girl; from the waist down she looks like she must be suffering from horrible pain and you can't imagine her ever walking. Everything we read prior to her arrival suggested that she would be in significant pain. However, her doctors and we are discovering that she is NOT experiencing pain, and we are all very confident that she WILL walk!

Because KTS is such an unusual condition, no treatment was available anywhere in Vietnam or in any other country but America. We learned that, even in America, only a handful of doctors/hospitals treat her condition. God’s plans and purposes were evident again when we discovered that one of the leading specialists in Quynh’s condition is Dr. Lisa Buckmiller (in the red sweater) at our own Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH). Carol and Quynh spent two weeks with Dr. Buckmiller and her team for MRIs, evaluations, blood tests, and Quynh’s first laser treatments.

As yet another example of God’s grace, Carol was joined in Little Rock by a wonderful new friend of Quynh, Jina Vick. Jina is a Nurse Practitioner from New Mexico who read about Quynh on the internet and began praying, donating, and encouraging us via emails during the months we struggled to get Quynh’s visa. When she heard that Carol had to stay alone with Quynh at a hotel for two weeks in Little Rock, Jina dropped everything, flew to Arkansas to meet Carol and Quynh, and stayed with them, helping care for Quynh, all at her own expense! Isn’t God amazing!! (Thanks Jina!)

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THIS LITTLE GIFT FROM GOD?

Carol and Marvin (founders of VCI) have been Quynh’s temporary guardians during the few months she has been in the USA undergoing testing and treatment. During this time we have asked the Lord to lead us to the family He has chosen to adopt Quynh and gently lead her in the ways of God. He has graciously led us to adopt her ourselves! That wasn’t what we expected God to do in the beginning, but we feel blessed to have the privilege. Since many of us have known her as Quynh for these past eight months, we have chosen to give her the name Kinsey Quynh Harlan, but continue to call her Quynh. For those who are interested, the name Kinsey means The King’s Victory; Quynh means Night-blooming Flower.

THE JOURNEY IS JUST BEGINNING FOR QUYNH. Carol and I have nine children and are directing a ministry of international adoption and compassionate aid. It is easy to feel overwhelmed at all God is doing! We see more clearly than ever that we need the ongoing love and support of the body of Christ.

As HE does so often, God is sweeping us off our feet and carrying us along in amazing adventure that is HIS will for our lives! None of us can begin to fathom the depths of HIS love and breadth of HIS plans and purposes for HIS children and HIS creation!

HE is doing big things; HE has brought us into HIS plans; and we hope you will pray about whether GOD may want to bring you in on it also...

Thank you for praying, giving, caring, and being a part of Quynh's adventurous (!) life.

Gratefully,

Marvin and Carol Harlan and family