Referral

Chinese Name: Nan Yu Zhe

Soon to be Named: Elisabeth "Claire" Lou Mei

Born: March 22, 2004

Letter of Intent: May 5, 2006

Dossier to China: June 9, 2006

Pre Approval: June 12, 2006

LID: June 19, 2006


When I knew that there would be a "special" email for our little girl, I had no idea it would come the very next DAY! That morning I looked at my email, and it said "Another Special Needs Child that is Available"! I knew before I opened it, that it was her and as I saw her photo, I knew even more! She could have passed for one of my own children. I ran to my room and grabbed a photo of Tori when she was between two and three and they looked SO much alike. Her special need was one that I was unfamiliar with, but with a few web browses discovered that it was indeed correctable! I called James ... finally I reached him and he agreed to look into this little girl further. I sent off the email right away and waited ... and waited. I finally called my friend Jenny and asked her to come over. Soon after her, followed my friend Michelle.

I finally called Laura, our family coordinator and did my best "playing it cool" interpretation for about two seconds. I finally spilled the beans about what God had been showing me and how much Claire looked like my own children and how much I already wanted this little girl. It was then she broke it to me. That, "many other families are interested in her" and that "all the emails sent will be responded to in the order they were received" and that "maybe by the end of the week we could review her file". Now mind you, this woman was as sweet as could be ... but my mother bear instinct was already kicking in thinking, "but you have my daughters file and I want to see it!" The Lord knows me so well. He does things to keep me in line. I sat with my friends for an hour. Just chatting about the weather for all I can remember. I was drifting and praying. Claire's photo finally came up on the computer screen and that is when I prayed knowing, that this was not MY child, this was not AWAA's child or China's. This was God's child and I prayed that God would just give me peace about where HE wanted her to be. Wouldn't you know, the phone rang that very second! It was Laura saying that we were next to review Claire's file and were we still interested!!!! Uhhh YEAAAA!!!!

Laura sent us photos of Claire at one and more current ones of her at two. She is in Maonan SWI, Maoming City in Guangdong Province. She is currently two years old and weighs 26 pounds. She sounds beyond perfect to us ... okay ... let's pack! Oh right, there is a little issue of paperwork left to be done ...