First of I have to thank all of you for your wonderful, beautiful, amazing comments!
I have been totally blown away by all of your love and support and excitement!
Today has been a very fun day!
From the bottom of my heart...
Thank you!
Now, I know that everyone is waiting to hear about our adorable new daughter
who will, here, be called XM for now because...
we are in a sort of battle of the s*xes around here when it comes to her name
The boys, well they like Sam (Samantha)
The girls are whining hoping for Ella (Eleanor)
Maybe we will let XM choose:)
So, let me back up a bit
all the way back to when we were in China
back to when we were in China in Lizzie's orphanage
That day forever changed me
even though I didn't really understand at the time...
I was finally beginning to hear the Lord's call in my heart
I was finally beginning to understand everything that had weighed so heavily on my heart as a child and everything that weighed so heavily on my heart as an adult
It was Him and He had been preparing me
When we left China
A piece of my heart stayed
and I knew we would be back
Hubby...
not so much
hehe!
So, we got Lizzie home and after all of her surgeries and casts and just plain ole hard attachment work,
I began to pray and to advocate
I never asked Hubby to consider another child, cause
he - was - done!
However, I began to ask the Lord
I asked Him to either move Hubby's heart or take the desire from mine
and...
One day, one summer as hubby was cutting the grass and listening to his MP3 player
a song began to play
and his heart was moved
the song was Steven Curtis Chapman's, When Love Takes You In
and he knew
He knew that there was another child waiting for us
He came to me with tears streaming down his face and he told me that he knew and he told me that there was another child waiting for us and he told me that she was around 8 or 9 years old and he told me that we had to bring her home
and then...
the floor fell out from beneath us and Hubby was out of work - for - a - very - long - time
It just wasn't time but the seed had been planted
We struggled financially and still do but it was a purposeful struggle which, in the end, brought us closer to God, stronger in our faith and eventually...
here
trusting in Him
following the path that He has laid out before us
having such peace about our sweet XM without knowing much about her at all
or having the money to bring her home
I mean, who does??
Back in February, our sweet XM came to me as a file from the shared list
I recognized her face as a face that I had seen on different lists...
she had been around a while and yet she still waited
There was something about her face
a familiar-ness???
definitely a cute-ness!!!
So, I showed her to Hubby and asked him to pray
and - he - did
I put her pic on the fridge ( I have lots of pics on the fridge - heh )
but we kept going back to her
we didn't talk about her much but we were both praying for her
I was trying to get more info on her but what I learned confused me even more
so I just let it go...
Until about a month later, after I began my fabulous job with Lifeline
My job is to advocate and to advocate for older/more significant needs kiddos and to do that, I needed files
files of older/more significant needs kiddos
right?
right!
So I asked for files
6 files to be exact
6 files out of 2000 files!
When these 6 files were sent to me, I was told that these kiddos were placed on Lifeline's individual
list and not only that but they were assigned to ME!
These were MY kids
I was excited and could not wait to get them up on my site!
As I began to go through them and got to the third file, "Mindy's" file...
my heart began to race and I began to shake - all over
it was a feeling I will never forget
because...
there she was
her sweet little face looking right at me
reaching out for me
and - I - was - done
I called Hubby and was crying and laughing and shaking and trying to explain to him that out of 2000 files, hers was sent to ME and I believed - to HIM
I didn't have to say much more because Hubby told me that he had been thinking about her ALL day
and - he - was - done
She was ours and we knew it
we knew it with such conviction that it did not matter that her file was full of holes and discrepancies
it didn't matter that we really did not know how old she is
it did not matter that we did not know what her exact needs are
it did not matter that we really just do not have the money to do this...
cause she is our daughter, the one that He has chosen for us, the one that He has put in our hearts with such peace and trust that we just could not turn away from her again.
We received PA for our precious XM last week
We think that she is 8 years old
We think that she has CP and is very delayed
However...
We know that she is our daughter and that the Lord has chosen us for her
and honestly, that is all we need to know
So, please welcome our newest daughter - name TBA soon
I hope - hehe
I have also added a donate button to the blog
I don't really know anything at all about fundraising and just feel so out of my comfort zone here but the button is up and in the mean time, if you have any great fundraising ideas, I would love to hear them
Thank you all again for being so sweet and sharing in our joy!
look out China, here we come!
