Wishes Do Come True!

What were you doing this time last year?

Can't remember? Well, we sure can. One year ago today, the beautiful face of our daughter and sister was revealed to us for the very first time.




A few days prior, Rob celebrated his birthday. When it was time to make the wish and blow out the candles, we all knew what his heart desired. We had been so disappointed when our referral did not come by Christmas time. Terrified to get our hopes up and then dashed, we glided along. Rumor Queen posted some hope of referrals brewing, but our agency emailed a notice that we may not know anything until the following week. WEEK??? Several of us from our travel group were preparing to stalk, I mean visit, our agency in hopes to catch a glimpse of our precious girls sooner. I was the closet geographically, so I joked that it would be simple to camp outside their office until they assigned each of us our children. (Truthfully, I don't think any of us were really joking - we wanted our daughters home!)

We kept ourselves busy by creating Chinese New Year packages for Emily's four year old class. We used Chinese stampers to stamp the bags and then filled them with an assortment of fun celebratory items. It was a nice project, over the course of those lonnngg weeks that helped keep our spirits up and focus on the prayer that our daughter was never alone, she was living well in our hearts. We also spent time lovingly preparing a care package that we could send once Hannah was chosen and we knew where she was.





I believe we read this book a thousand times. To this day, I cannot get through it without weeping.



But, on February 1, 2007, life changed in the way that we had prayed for since October 8, 2005, when we were logged into CCAA to adopt a baby girl from China. I left for work the same as any other day and since I had not heard anything, I assumed that Thursday would not be the day. Just in case it was, I had brought with me (as I had done everyday that month) my formal Referral Sheet, loaded with questions to ask at the time of referral. Heading out the door to take a student for a walk, my cell rang. It was my mother. Emily was recouperating from pneumonia, and I figured she had a question. When I heard her voice though, she was frantic. The house phone had rung - the caller id reflected a number she thought could be our agency. We hung up and at that very moment (3:57 PM, to be exact), I heard the most wonderful words...

"Hi Mrs. AdoptingMama, this is Agencyangel and I'm happy to tell you that you have a little girl, her name is Feng, Xiaowei. She is from the Jiangxi Province." My head was swimming, I was not writing on the neatly placed lines of my referral sheet, I was crying and shaking, still standing in the foyer of their home. At one point my knees buckled ever so slightly, I lowered myself to the floor and wrote fiendishly to capture every word. Not the glamorous moment I had pictured in my brain, but it was certainly a moment that will remain etched upon my heart. Many say that referral is amazing, honestly, it is indescribable. I know during that conversation, I managed to commit to my memory that she was 8 months old, yippee! And she ended our call with, "Heather, wait til you see her eyes, she has the biggest, most beautiful eyes." SEE...When can we see her???

Agencyangel advised us to sit by our computer and she would email our pictures and the formal referral as soon as all the families had been notified. My feet did not touch the ground as I squealed away from their home and landed in my own family room to see, finally see, our daughter. So we sat, and we sat, talked a little, sat some more and then, this came...









I recognize that I am biased, but we thought she was breathtaking. I actually gasped when I saw her, she looked perfect in every way. Until Emily's birth, I did not believe in love at first sight, but that perfect little creature changed my heart. And now, our second daughter captivated just the same. I felt such devotion to her, I wanted to bring her home and I prayed that I would do well by her. As delightful as those moments are, it always sends home the reality that soon she will leave the only family she has ever known and the only home she has had. I prayed we were enough.

The following week, the agency scheduled a meeting so we could have the actual documentation and hard copy of the pictures. The meeting went very well and Rob and I carried around poster size copies of her pictures. EVERYWHERE! God bless all those who had to see this child over and over again! Emily got the joy of showing off her sister to her classmates, what a miraculous experience.

We received some updated photos of Hannah, which thrilled us to no end (and I am sure all the people who had to see the poster size referral photos were so happy to view yet another set of poster size pictures). One of these pictures is in a small frame and Hannah sometimes touches it and tells me, "Hannah, tiger!"






Knowing where Hannah was from opened up some new Yahoo groups for us and I joined them immediately. I would be blessed to find pictures of her Social Welfare Institute and even more blessed to find pictures of Hannah when she was very young.




Today, Hannah has been home with us for almost ten months. Hard to believe. She had stretched us in so many ways, her daddy who thinks going next town over is "far" travelled across the ocean to bring her home. Her sister, convinced she'd be the queen forever, now gladly shares her space and time with this adorable little girl. And me, well there are no words for how deep the river runs. It is that red thread, she is our destiny. For all of you waiting, I hope for speed and for you to have your own wish come true. I will pray until your referrals come in and until all our babies are home safe and sound.

"I have told you these things for a purpose; that my joy might be your joy, and your joy may be wholly mature in it's time." John 15:11