Memorial Box Monday - Our Daughter

When we decided to adopt our daughter, we wanted a child that would be close in age to SG. Our boys are 19mo apart and do so well together, so we wanted our daughters to share that same friendship. At the time, SG was 3.5 yr old and we had BTDT with infants, so we were interested in a toddler. Initially, we asked our agency if we could adopt a child that was 19mo old. We were told no. At the time, it was very hard to take. However, we kept praying and looking at the available children. One little girl just kept looking at me and saying "What's taking you so long?" She was older than we were initially open to at 28 mo (just 12 mo younger than SG). However, I just felt God continue to tug at my heart. I prayed and prayed and finally asked DH about adopting her. He said Yes! So we asked our agency if we could be her parents - and they said Yes!!!


Fast forward through the adoption process to our travel time. We ended up traveling with the family that was matched with the little one that we originally asked to parent! When the other family received their daughter and as the days in China progressed, it became clearly obvious that HJ was OUR daughter and the other little one was their daughter. She wasn't walking yet and struggled with other issues. HJ, however, hit the ground running! In fact, there were times that our guide had to run to catch her as she would run when we put her down. So, in our Memorial Box, is a picture of HJ.