GOD IS SO FAITHFUL!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness! Where do I start? I am literally bawling and cannot believe the lengths that our God goes through to show us that He IS Lord and that when we follow Him, He keeps His promises!!!

Ok! About a month ago, a woman whom I do not know posted on one of my waiting child groups that she has received TA. What caught my attention was that she said she was going to Hefei, which is Anna Grace's province. I immediately emailed her and asked if at all possible, when she went to Hefei could she ask about my daughter and maybe take a picture if it wasn't an inconvenience. She agreed, but said that she didn't think that they would allow her to visit the orphanage. She had heard that this orphanage wasn't very keen on adoptive parents visiting. Hmmm....that sounded strange to me because Anna Grace's orphanage has lots of adoptions yearly and it's almost like an arranged tour everytime a family picks up their child. The woman in conversation (via email) mentioned the name of her little boy's orphanage. Alas, I realized, it was NOT Anna Grace's, so she'd never see her. I wrote her back, told her that they weren't at the same place and thanked her anyways.

Fast forward to the day before yesterday. I was going thru some of my yahoo groups, when I visit one whose subject line said "Ohilda". I click on the message and there is a post from a woman named "Molly". She said she had pictures of Anna Grace and where did I want her to send them. I was shocked and thrilled with excitement. I immediately wrote back and gave her my email address. Well, a day went by....a second day went by...and nothing. No response. I had no idea who this woman was. She was not a member of the Hefei Yahoo Group so I didn't know her from there. But the name sort of rang a bell. Hmmm....Molly???

After waiting for 2 days to see if anyone responded and checking my email 40x a day, I was pretty bummed because she never wrote back. I thought maybe it was someone playing a cruel joke.

Bear with me, I need to explain what came next. Last night, we went to my Mom's since my brother was in town with his family, and were there till almost 1:30 a.m. It was a great get together, but what made it so special was that he had brought some friends along that are Christian and their lives are truly guided by the Lord. My brother, on the other hand, sadly says he believes in Christ, but it always seems to be on his terms and in words only. As we were all eating dinner, the conversation turned to the fact that the gentleman that was a friend of my brother's sings at his congregation and somehow began singing a Christian song in spanish. I am completely fluent in spanish, being Cuban, but really all of my prayers and everything I know and do relating to my relationship with God is in English. Our little group began singing really upbeat spanish Christian songs and it sort of began a small praise and worship little session. I was feeling out of the loop because I knew none of the songs, so I grab the laptop, start searching for lyrics to the songs they were singing. Turns out that I found many of them and everyone then joined in. We pulled out tamborines and spent a good hour in total praise and worship to the Lord. Part of me was feeling bad for my brother, who was sitting on the couch saying we were a bunch of losers and why can't we leave God out of our lives...."that's all you guys talk about"...blah...blah...blah. You get the point.

I was really enjoying myself, but I didn't want him to feel bad since he was only here for a couple of days. Satan was trying hard to make me think that "yes, maybe I was over the edge about God" and "You should stop and go spend time with your brother". But I kept rebuking him and saying Lord, you deserve all this praise and worship! This scripture immediately came to mind. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. - Matthew 5:11 Why should we stop because someone doesn't want to hear it? The singing continued. The rest of the night, I was flying high in the spirit! I felt good afterwards that I hadn't "given in" and felt "embarrassed" about our Lord being the center of our lives. Indeed He is!

Going back to Anna Grace, we get in the car and begin the hour-long drive home. I'm still a bit bummed about the email/picture ordeal, but that name kept coming to me. All of a sudden, I say to Scott, "Oh my God! I know who Molly is!!! She is the woman that I emailed who was going to Hefei, but her little boy turned out to be from another orphanage." I continued by saying, "I bet you that she totally forgot the kids were at different orphanages and she came across a little girl that she thinks is Anna Grace and will be sending me pictures of some other child. My heart sank. But, I was prepared for the disappointment if the pictures came in.

This morning, the boys woke at their normal time (7 am), but since we went to bed at almost 3 am, we were exhausted. Scott got up and brought the boys into bed with us. My norm, if I knew I was getting ANY info about Anna Grace, would be to jump out of bed and check the computer first thing. But, remembering that it wasn't her, even if I did get something, I decided not to bother getting up. We played with the boys for a good 2 hours until they were too restless to stay on the bed. I get up and start making breakfast and then meander over to the computer. Sure enough....amidst the spam and normal emails, I see this email from "Molly". I open it up and immediately notice there is an attachment. Part of me wanted to read the note first, the other part just wanted to scroll to the pictures....but I was scared of being disappointed. So, I decided I'd read the note. This is what she wrote:

Hi, Ohilda:

Sorry this took so long; for some reason Yahoo Mail wasn't accepting attachments. But I kept trying and finally it worked. Anyway, our guide said she had to go to the Hefei orphanage (Sunbeam Village), so we gave her the name and she took these pictures. Apparently, the kids shown with Anna Grace are her foster siblings at the orphanage. Your daughter is lovely; may you be joined as a family soon! Let me know if the pics came through....Molly

I then scroll down and there she is....our beautiful baby girl, SMILING back at me!!! The only picture out of almost 40 pictures we've received of her, where she is smiling! The tears just started flowing and flowing....and flowing! I couldn't believe it!! Oh my God! This was ALL God.

I know with every fiber of my being that it is because I stuck with Him, I faced the ridicule and embarrassment as I sat there listening to my brother talk garbage, yet He was faithful. He, once again, allowed me to see that He IS the miracle maker. What are the chances that someone you totally do not have any relationship with or know, will go to the province of 4 MILLION people, and then after knowing that our daughter was not at the same orphanage, still ask someone ELSE who was going there to take pictures for us? THAT"S GOD!!!!!!

And not only that, but I have never seen pictures of Anna Grace's foster siblings, and He blessed us with that gift. To be honest, had I been Molly and I was told that someone's child wasn't at my child's orphanage, I'd have forgotten about it. Probably not given it another thought. She STILL remembered or I don't know how she did it, but she still had Anna Grace's Chinese name and passed it along to her guide. And then for her guide to agree to it. This woman could've easily said, "I'm really busy....sorry!" or "Because she is not with our agency, I cannot ask about her." But No! God orchestrated everyone who needed to be involved, moved each of their hearts and worked out the details.

I received 3 pictures. Two with foster siblings and one of her alone smiling. I will only post the smiling one on here because I do not know if any of her foster siblings are adoptable or if they are in the process. I want to respect their privacy, if that is the case. But, I will definitely share our beautiful daughter. Yes...in the same pants and same green coat, with a sweaty head, but more beautiful than I have ever seen her....with a smile that lights up my heart like floodlights in the night!

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the gift of your son. I know that it is through Him that we are showered with blessings and He once again has shown us that when we stand firm in Him, he moves mountains for us!

Molly, if you read this, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for going thru extremes to bring such immense joy into our hearts! May the Lord bless you abundantly for your kindness!

Friends, here's our angel girl........SMILING!!!!! Enjoy!