When I sat down to read my morning emails, my heart raced. One of the directors of the agency we used to adopt Hannah had contacted me out of the blue, because she was in China meeting kids, and she found herself thinking of us as the perfect family for a certain child. You can call it coincidence. You can even be pessimistic and call it self-serving, in the sense that her job is to place children. I prefer to think of it as the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
She described her as "serious, intense, brilliant and so sweet..... truly amazing..." This child had similar special needs to Hannah's. Needs we were already familiar with. She asked if we wanted to see a picture. She ended with, "No pressure at all, but I just had a very strong feeling about you and this child."
I emailed back at once and said yes, we would like to see pictures. Then I called Paul and told him about her.
We didn't actually get pictures until June 4th, in line at Disneyland. Jack and I were waiting to go on Soaring over California the first time I saw this:
Be still my heart! What a lovely baby! Looking back at my emails, I have to laugh. I had a homestudy agency lined up and the application downloaded 5/30. Paul and I talked and talked about it, and on on 6/23, he took me out to lunch, looked across the table at me, and said, "Yes." I knew exactly what he meant, and got the ball rolling as soon as we got home.
When we hit the one year mark since officially starting her adoption, we will be in China with her. My sweet little girl! I'm so excited to meet her and get to know her. I feel amazed that, without even trying to, we ended up with a baby younger than Hannah was when we met her (by almost a year). I guess I just always felt like only the most worthy families get the youngest babies, and to be bringing home two little ones is such a privilege.
I look at this little girl and think, "What if she hadn't sent that email?" We were not looking to adopt. We would not have just run across her. We had been talking about starting the process for a little boy in the fall or maybe a little later. We would have missed this.
Next time you feel prompted to do or say something, and you hesitate, please remember Katie. Likely, some other lucky family would have found her file by now and be working toward bringing her home, but WE would have missed out on her!
Please pray for Katie and her nanny in the top pictures. I can just see the love between them. It's going to take a lot of work to transfer those affections, and we are prepared to deal with some heavy grieving as she loses all that is familiar to her.
Look at her! How did I get so lucky? I know she wasn't "born for me," but I am honored and humbled that God saw this little one in need of a family and orchestrated events to bring us together. Our agency could have been partnered with any orphanage in China, but they are matched with hers. Lord, help me be the best Mama I can possibly be for her.
Thanks for clicking for us! 
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