We have been home now for a little over two weeks. We finally feel like we are on East Coast U.S. time. I promised to come back and share some stories of our trip. The story I love best is about waiting for God's Perfect Timing. God truly has an intricate woven world and when you put Him in charge a wealth of miracles, found friendships, and special family times come together in a way we could never have planned ourselves. This is the story of two little girls who met while in foster care. Their Foster moms were friends and they had many opportunities to play together and get to know each other. This is the story of Xing Xing (mei mei -younger sis) and her Lin Lin (jei jei- older sis)- No they are not related by birth, but they are two kindred spirits tied with God's love together forever. Both Xing Xing (Michelle) and Lin Lin (Kathryn) were put on a list to be adopted last December. We saw our daughter on December 6th 2006 for the first time. We saw Lin Lin that day too. I remember thinking - wow they are from the same orphanage maybe they know each other, maybe they are friends. I have been praying for my daughter to have a lifelong friend. Months went by and we quickly were over 100 days from log in date with no Letter of Acceptance in site. According to normal time lines we should have traveled in April or May, but we had a few delays from China - they needed extra medical records. When you are waiting for your child - nothing could be worse than hearing that China needs more records. This delay and a few others from China were putting our time line well into July - As James (our oldest) was marrying the beautiful Heather on August 4th, there was no possible way we could risk traveling until after the wedding. Our Letter of Acceptance arrived in June and we could travel in July. We thought long and hard about leaving in July, but it did not seem fair to bring a little girl to a large wedding in the middle of working on attachment. We would have loved to have had Michelle at the wedding, but after careful prayer, We listened to God and chose a date of August 7th to leave for China. Fortunately we could even use our frequent flyer miles too.
God does reward you when you listen: Amazingly, this put us on Kathryn's time line and if things went a little faster for her paperwork we could travel together. We began to pray as we received pictures in July of both Michelle and Kathryn together. I remember the moment and thought - God has given Michelle a lifelong friend - someone to share her secrets and memories with. Could we possibly travel together. After speaking to Hope For Children, they were trying to do everything to make this possible.
On August 12th we met Kathryn parents, Dave and Nora. On August 13th we met our daughters together. This bond to share with them was amazing. I can not begin to express my gratitude for their friendship. Because Lian Lian (Lin Lin) and Xing Xing (Hing Hing) are so close, our daughter's transition was so much smoother. In China, everyday Xing Xing looked forward to playing with her beautiful friend Lin Lin and her Ger Ger Zach.
The following are pictures of a tribute to lifelong friends and God's Promises in our lives. We are truly blessed. If Dan and I had pushed our trip in July - during the rush of the wedding - We would have never had these memories and our daughter would have not transitioned and attached so easily. Thank you God and the O'Brien Family. Thank you Zach(Xing Xing's Ger Ger) for helping both girls have a happy and wonderful first experience with their families. You are an amazing son.
I will update more pictures of the girls as they continue their friendship through the years. Currently we are using web teleconferencing to allow the girls to see each other at least one time per week. They are such talkers and they love to laugh together, all in Chinese of course.
