a journey of surprises & blessing...

It seems as if every twist and turn in this journey comes with an awesome story and I got another one today! I'll back track just a little bit.... we mailed the package, requested updates, etc. and have heard nothing at all. Nothing. Nothing. It is a very strange feeling to know that she is over there but I can't find a way to find out anything else about her. So, I'm left to stare at a little photo on the computer and wonder "what do her little fingers feel like? What does she smell like? What does it feel like to hold her?".... you know all the little details that you just know about your babies. And you know when you hold a friend's baby how they just feel different than yours? I stare at her and wonder, will she "feel" like she is mine? It can kind of drive you crazy looking at a picture of your child who you can't hold yet, so I generally say a prayer for her and minimize the photo on my computer in order to maintain a bit of sanity!

So today, Lifeline (our adoption agency) was hosting a reunion/30th birthday party/ welcome to the CCCWA party.... the CCCWA is the governing body in China responsible for all adoptions. Their 2nd in command was with them and it was a HUGE deal that they chose to spend time in AL with Lifeline on their trip to the US. There were about 20 people with them including Lily who matched us with our baby. (Lily is chinese, lives in China, but a lifeline employee) I was excited to meet her and thank her in person for choosing our daughter for us (we are almost there on a name!).

As I pulled into the parking lot, the song Fingerprints of God came on the radio which I referenced a couple of posts ago. Everytime I hear that now, I just smile and think of how much God surprises me by showing up in crazy ways during this journey... stamping His fingerprints all over it... Little did I know....

I go in and find Lily, and introduce myself saying "I'm Rushton who you matched with XXX" and I show her a photo on my phone. She cuts me off and says "oh, her orphanage director is here!" and then starts calling to this man across the way to come over. I about DIED! Seriously there are millions of orphans in China, thousands of orphanages, maybe 6 orphanage directors came with this delegation and my baby's was there!!! I have to think the odds of that happening are super slim but thank goodness our God can do anything He wants! The only thing that could have topped this would have been for our baby to somehow have appeared in the room :) So Lily told me to ask questions and let her translate for me and you know what happened? My mind went completely blank!!! Every day my mind is flooded with things I want to know and what do I ask him? "You know XX? You really know her??" I just couldn't believe I was talking to a man who sees her everyday!

It is very a bizarre feeling to be standing beside a man who knows my daughter well and yet she is MY daughter but I don't know her at all and I can't even communicate with him. Part of me just wanted to follow him around the whole party, sit by him, hug him, bring him home with me, etc... I guess as a way to feel closer to my baby.

Once I regained some composure, I SHOULD have asked-- what is she like? Is she happy? Do you love her? The questions all come to me now. Instead I got this info:

She is not walking.

The shaved her head this summer so that when she is an adult, she will have strong hair.... hmmmm....

They call her meimei (pronounced MayMay).

She is in a room with 11 babies and 2 nannies at all times. (One of her rommies is the daughter of a mom I have connected with online!) She has her own bed.

I asked if he would send me more photos and he said that they change so much now so he wants to wait until closer to when we travel.... I guess so we will recognize her... he didn't quite get why I wanted some now-- He obviously doesn't know about my scrapbooking.

He took several photos of me and Anne Rainey and even gave her a panda, which is so sweet to me-- it's like a little piece of her. The same hands that gave AR that are the hands that have held our baby...

I also got Lily to tell him that we want to tour the orphanage when we come and take him out to lunch and he laughed and said he wanted to take us out. I thanked him for caring for our baby.

And that was it! He was very sweet & kind and what I loved most was that when I asked him, he did not even have to think to remember which baby she was.... He knew exactly who she was and he seemed to know her well.....which honestly was just the encouragement that I needed this week. I read a few sad things about the condition of the orphanage online recently, which Derek reminded me that all we can do it pray for baby girl and for protection around her and for her to feel loved... But how amazing that God had bigger plans to assure me.... letting me meet the man in charge of her care. Thank you Jesus! Still waiting on LOA...