Mei Mei's story ~ part 5

I nervously checked my email every few minutes until I finally saw my contact's reply that said the agency was flexible and open to considering families at six months.  We'd have to request a "formal exemption" that involved speaking with the China program director and signing a consent of release of information from our social worker for Caleb's adoption and post placement to speak with them about our family dynamics, but the door was still open!

Now that all the "fleece" was out there ~ and there were no more hurdles to clear, we had a major decision on our hands.  Just in case our thick human skulls couldn't comprehend how the signs that we'd already prayed about (each of which honestly could have stopped the process) had all been answered favorably, God put many conversations, sermons, songs, and just darn neat instances ~ that some would likely call coincidence though I believe otherwise ~ in our path.  

There was the whole conversation with Kylie in which she picked the name Darcy out of a list of five names that I gave her.

There was the fact that Darcy and my grandmother (my dad's mom ~ who the last time I saw her nearly six years ago before she died told me that I'd have a house full of children soon) share a birthday.  

There was the fact that the novel I was reading was set in the city Darcy currently resides in.

There is the cool trivia that at 11 months of age she was almost exactly the same size that Kylie and Caleb were at the same age.  

There's the conversation that a dear friend and I had late one night BEFORE she had a clue about Darcy when she said (talking about her own life, but still speaking directly to my heart), "Who am I to think about what is convenient to me in this world?"  (At this point we were thinking how crazy life would be with three kids essentially the same age).

There was the fact that we were on my grandma and grandpa's farm (the same grandmother that Darcy shares a birthday with)  when we got the call about receiving updated information on her.

There was the fact that once Ian and I saw her recent picture that her eyes spoke volumes into our hearts.

There was the fact that in her picture her little lips purse up into a "bow" just like Caleb's do when he's relaxed, causing me to say, "Look, she looks just like him."

There is a little girl in our OAKS group who has the same visual "special need" as Darcy and they are just two months apart in age.  This little girl's mother provided me a wealth of medical information on treatment for that special need.

There was the fact that on Easter Sunday as we drove from church to Mama's house that we both looked at each other without any other discussion and said, "She's our Darcy.  Let's do whatever it takes..."  

And that Easter Sunday closes out Lent, the season that we prayed for God to reveal to us His plan for us as it deals with orphans.  Did we "decide to decide" that day?  No, but that is the day that we just knew!

I suspect that all along I knew we'd be on the road to bring her home, but I can't fully express how joyful I am that God made it so clear along the way.  We did request, and obviously were granted (or there wouldn't be a story to tell), that exemption.  Then came the process of locating a Hague approved home study agency that would expedite our process.  We're waiting now for our child abuse clearances to come back so that we can get started.  In the meantime, we've collected everything but our photo pages for our dossier.  It's amazing how when you do this process "completely backwards" and have a picture of your child in every room of your house how quickly you can move!  

We've still got a long road ahead of us, I wasn't kidding when I said that I'm not at liberty to share more details about her yet.  Because she is on our agency's "agency specific list" we haven't submitted our LOI yet, we're waiting until our home study is finished to buy us more time in that tight dossier submission timeline.  Some days not having our PA yet causes me to have slight panic attacks, but God is faithful!  I have no doubt that because He brought us to this child that He will see the journey finished.  I've felt a peace about the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas and if we continue to collect our dossier at the rate we've been going, that is still a very real possibility.

So three adoptions, three new children, three trips to China in three calendar years? (Hopefully we'll make it before 2010 is ushered in ~ please pray with us that we will!)  Five years ago, who would have thought?  I know I wouldn't have, yet now I see the beauty in God's plan and I'm ready to share it with others.  

When I was at my doctor's appointment for my physical there was a blank on my medical form asking if there was any reason that the patient couldn't carry a child.  Dr. R looked at me and asked, being sensitive to the private information.  I told her simply that the diagnosis had been "unexplained infertility."  She got a very sympathetic look on her face and said that she was sorry, that she'd seen so many friends frustrated at simply not having an answer why.  It was with true joy in my heart that I answered, "Oh, it's okay.  You see, it was only unexplained in medical terms, but I know THE reason why ~ God knew my babies were in China."  

Darcy, we'll be there as soon as we can be ~ get ready for us!

**And that's basically the story of how we found Darcy and came to know that she was indeed our third child, our second daughter, and Kylie and Caleb's Mei Mei.  I'll be talking about her more when I can!