The Call

The day after we released the file that I mentioned in my last post, the kids and I packed up the car and headed up to New Smyrna Beach to visit Aunt Diane and Uncle Rick (perhaps you read about them in With an Open Heart). The drive is a few hours and Spring Break seemed like the perfect excuse for a little road trip to get away for a couple of days.

About half an hour into our adventure, my cell phone rang. It was Beth from Holt, our adoption agency. She had just come across a new file on the shared list of a little boy, and she wanted to know if we were interested in taking a look. The only thing that flashed through my mind was our social worker's comment from the day before when we released that file:

"You cannot feel badly. If God has a different child for you 

and you say yes to this child, then what?" 

Just one day later, it seemed God's plan was already unfolding. Beth mentioned that--out of all the families waiting for referrals--we were only one of a few families who are open to adopting a boy. 

Suffice it to say, that hit my heart. 

I knew there wasn't much hope of accessing any information from my cell phone, so Beth said she'd send the file to Jimmy, since I was on the road. I could hardly wait to get to New Smyrna to find out more. We were given a limited time to accept the referral, and if we were at all interested in obtaining additional information, we would need to submit a Letter of Intent to adopt him the next day in order to lock his file.

We arrived in New Smyrna a couple of hours later, and I instantly clued our dear relatives in to what was happening. They graciously allowed me to hop on their computer, so I could look over this file and read all about this little boy.

Now, if you know me at all, you know that I'm really tied in to signs and connections and all that good stuff...well, when I saw little guy's Chinese name, I felt a connection right away. His name is Xiao Xiao. Madi's Chinese name is Xiao Yuan, and we called her Xiao Xiao as a baby!

And this child...he has my Grandpa's birthday of January 14th. He and I were very, very close, and he's been gone for years, yet I still--every year--remember him on his birthday. 

Xiao Xiao just turned five, so that puts him slightly out of birth order in our family, with Charlie about nine months behind. The boys will be close in age, so we are hopeful that the dynamic will work out just fine. We realize that Xiao Xiao could be delayed in many ways, especially since he has spent his entire life in the orphanage and has had no formal education. We think the timing will be perfect for him to learn how to be part of a family.

His medical needs seem minor, compared to some of the files we'd recently reviewed, and I could see that Jimmy truly felt a sense of peace about this one. He was born with clubbed feet, a medical condition which happens to run in Jimmy's family! Xiao Xiao was given a surgery to repair his left foot in China last Summer. The file included pictures, and he was reported to be quite mobile. 

Our LOI was submitted the next day.

I think it was pretty much a "no-brainer" from the get-go. He is adorable, and we pray he'll fit right into our family. Please keep him in your prayers as he waits for us.