Who? What? Where? When?

Since I started the blog for Anna Grace, I have received numerous emails from people pretty surprised that we are again starting our journey so soon. Along with the emails, there's lots of questions. Were you planning it? Was it another "God" incidence like with the boys? When did this all happen? And so on.

So, since you've asked, I figured I would respond on here and that way EVERYONE could get the whole story. When we came home with Kai, there were some issues with his blood tests that made us very nervous. I prayed, along with many prayer warriors, that the subsequent tests would all come back negative. At that point, Scott and I had both decided that with two boys (coming to us at once) we were done. Factory closed. Potato chip bag empty.

I prayed harder than I have ever prayed in my life during that long wait for the test results. I should know better than to try and negotiate with God, but my human side always seems to jump in. One of my "deals" with him was that if his tests came back negative, I would (as if Scott had no say in it..hahaha!) go back to China for another child. And it would definitely be another waiting child (special needs). Well, Praise God, the tests did come back negative. So, I was faced with telling Scott that we HAD to go back to China. How can I not keep my promise to God? This occured on May 22. I started hinting shortly thereafter, and as I think all husbands must do, he told me "Nope. We're done!" or "why are you doing this to me? You wanted one...we now have two! And you want a third? We had a deal!" As in the other two adoptions, I kept praying on it. I wanted to make 100% sure that this was God's idea and not mine. And again, as in the other two adoptions, during and after prayer, God would fill be with peace and the feeling of "leave this to me, I am in control." One night, I pretty much lost it. I had a pretty serious talk with Scott and said, "You see. I made God this promise while we were waiting for Kai's tests back. And YOU are preventing me from keeping my promise! At least I hope that God sees that my heart is open to it." Scott said nothing. Two days went by. I vigilently scoured over waiting child lists and continued to pray. A week later, Scott went to a new prayer group that had formed at church. He came back and said he really enjoyed it, but didn't elaborate much on it. This was the week before 4th of July weekend. In the meantime, I kept praying and God kept telling me to shut up and let him work.

Fourth of July weekend we took off to Ft. Myers beach with the entire family for a fun-filled four days of beach and sunshine. There was a running joke about us going back to China for a girl during the weekend and I just smiled as I got the "look" from Scott when he was being told about going back. On our third day there, a friend of my sister's took a newspaper that had an article about a family who had adopted from China. I remember it as if it were yesterday. We were in the hotel room and Scott was laying down next to Kai on one end of the bed, AJ was in the middle and I was reading the article. I said, "Look! How cool would it have been to tour here." as I showed him some pictures of China, and he said, "Maybe we can go there when we pick up our little girl." I heard him, but it was almost like I didn't hear him. I was awestruck. He said, "Did you hear me?" I said..."Yes!!!!" But then reality hit. OMG! THREE KIDS!!!! Are we crazy? I asked him what and when did he change his mind. He said there wasn't any particular moment, but that he had been praying on it and that God had opened his heart up to another child. He was ready.

Wow! So, I took his words to heart and seriously poured over the lists. We discussed the many special needs we would accept. It seemed, unbelievably, that it was so hard to find a little girl between the age of Kai and AJ with a special need we could manage (and trust me, our list was quite extensive). On September 4, 2006, which by the way was the birthdate of our very first referral for our little boy in Belarus, I came across a beautiful little girl on the list of an agency that I had not heard too much about. So, I emailed the agency and asked them if I could review her medical info. Two days later, I got this email back:

"Hi Ohilda,Thank you for your inquirey on little Qin. She is just darling. As of this weekend, we have at least 6 families seriously interested inpursuing her adoption. I believe her forever family is very near.We would love to work with you in the future."

So, I was bummed, but sort of expected it. She was beautiful, young, and clearly....too good to be true. But, as we all know, with God nothing is impossible. On Wednesday, September 13, almost 10 days later, I got home around 5 pm and had this email in my inbox:

"Hi Ohilda,I tried to phone you today, but couldn't get through. Qin is available and I wanted to speak with you to see if you might still be interested. You can be DTC on the anniversary of the date that your last travel approval was signed. My guess is that you are just fine to submit an LOI for Qin. I'm attaching Qin's medical for your review."

I was pretty shocked to say the least, and the first thought through my mind was that something was terribly wrong with her, although it was listed as her special needs being sooooo manageable. I pick up the phone and call the agency. They tell me that the family that was reviewing the file was a NSN family and when they inquired about her SNs and that she may need a possible surgery, they changed their minds. So, I said..."How about the other 5 families?" I could understand 1 or 2, but 6? The woman on the other end responded with, "I'm not sure what happened, but it seems that every single one of those families had a circumstance that they could not adopt right now!"

That was ALL GOD to me! He cleared six families out of the way to lead us to our daughter. So, we took the baton and ran. We started calling doctors, doing research, and speaking to families that had dealt with this SN.....which was amazing to us since it really IS no big deal. She is perfectly healthy and beautiful to boot! So, the next night at about 11 PM we finished up the last of the paperwork to petition for her and faxed it over to the agency. On Friday, September 15, at 12:54 PM, I received an email saying that she was ours!!!!

That's the whole story! I had been praying for God to open doors and make it really obvious when it was our child....and once again, he hits us like a lightning bolt. :)