How Will We Know?

"Your heart often knows things before your mind does." ~Polly Adler

Back when we started the adoption process, we wanted Emily to feel a part of things. We were excited and we wanted her to feel the joy of anticipating her little sister. We had her sign our family letter for the process and even had it notarized. She was as much part of this decision as we were.

At some point, it became apparent that the wait would be longer than we expected and some days were so much harder than any of us had bargained for. So we would talk about Hannah, to each other, to friends and family, to the tree out front, to a fencepost if we had to, and most importantly, we talked to God about her. During one of our conversations as a family, we asked Emily, "How will we know....how will we know which baby is our Hannah?" Her reply was quick and precise, "That's easy, she's the one in blue."

She said that many more times during our wait and I even began selecting more blue items than I normally would for this little girl because Emily was so convinced about the blue. I listened carefully on the phone the evening Hannah was placed in my husband's arms for the very first time (Emily had fallen asleep and I was here in the states with her). I listened as he became awestruck with yet another little girl he'd have the priviledge of calling his daughter. My question, "Is she in blue?" His answer, "No, but she looks beautiful in pink."

We didn't talk much about the "blue" once she arrived home and Emily was so happy to be with her, she didn't mention it either. Until one day...we received a package with information about Hannah and how she'd arrived at her orphanage. We read through everything and felt so blessed to have just one more compilation to add to her story. We got to the last line which read, "She was wearing double layered blue clothing."

I asked Emily how she knew...she said she saw her in her dreams.