Well, not literally but here’s the story…

On Wednesday, April 18th, our adoption agency made a new Special Needs list of 20 children available which we requested and received on Thursday, April 19th. On all previous Special Needs lists, pictures were provided of the children along with a fairly detailed description of their “special need”. This time around though, there were no pictures and only a thumbnail sketch of the childrens’ condition. We printed out the information and glanced over it on Thursday night but didn’t really discuss any of them.

I called Carmi at work around mid-morning on Friday, April 20th, and in casual conversation asked if she was interested in any of the children. She mentioned two in particular so I encouraged her to email our agency. As lunch approached, I hadn’t heard back from her so I called our agency just to let them know that Carmi had sent an email. One of the little girls already had a waiting list of 7 families and the other only had 1 family currently looking at her information which meant that we were first in line if the family decided not to pursue her. A family looking at a child’s information has 5 days to decide whether to adopt or not so we just sat back over the weekend and waited.

I was busy working in the office on Tuesday morning, April 24th, when my phone rang. On the other end was a lady from our agency’s office. My heart skipped a beat when she identified herself.

“Doug, the family who was looking at #6 on the list desires an older child so I just emailed you pictures and more detailed information on her special need. She’s yours to consider.”

In the midst of her news, I glanced down and saw the little “incoming email” icon going to town on my computer screen. Surely she heard me gasp.

“You and Carmi have 5 days to make a decision.”

I blathered something like “Oh my gosh” and “Thank you” and “Unbelievable” and “You’re a jewel” before our short conversation ended. Hopefully I made some kind of coherent sense but I doubt it.

As we hung up, the email had arrived and my hands trembled a little as I opened it. I scrolled down and there, at the bottom of the email,  were two pictures of a little angel.

“That’s our daughter! That’s our daughter!”

I started laughing and repeated that phrase once or twice just in case I didn’t hear myself correctly the first time. It’s a good thing that no one came into my office because for the next few minutes, I cried a little. Then I picked up the phone and called Carmi while simultaneously forwarding the good news.

“Check your email!”, I almost screamed when she answered and her first words were something like “Oh my gosh!”

Great minds think alike.

After giggling for a while like school kids in a crush, I honestly don’t remember if I suggested it or if Carmi did but we agreed immediately to inform our agency that we wanted that child. That was our little girl. There was no thinking about it overnight. We didn’t have to pray about it. The fact is that we had been praying about it since the previous Friday and God, once again, answered our prayers.

Our daughter is being cared for at the Baoding Social Welfare Institute in the Hebei Province. Her birthday is February 1st, 2005 which means that she is just over 2 years old. Eliana’s birthday is February 20th so there is exactly 3 years difference in their ages. In our opinion, that’s just perfect. Her special need? She has a “rectovestibular fistula”.

I know, I know…shut up and show us the pictures of Karys!