When One Door Closes........

One year ago today, on March 1st, 2008, we recieved the call that would forever change our lives. The call that we had been waiting for for 17 months. The call telling us that a beautiful little girl named Xi He Su from Wuxi was waiting for a family, and that we may be just that family!

Funny thing about that call is that it came on the night of my nephew Nicky's birthday party, when my house was overflowing with little ones, and I wasn't even able to answer it.

And the other funny thing about that call is that I didn't even know that someone was looking for our Maia for us. Because we were signed up with a different agency. Waiting for a referral for a baby girl from Vietnam.

But Someone was indeed looking for our Maia. Someone hadn't forgotten about us. Or our Maia. And that Someone was about to bless us beyond our wildest dreams!

But let me back up a moment to December of 2007, when I had contacted Homeland Adoptions very briefly to ask about a different little girl on a special needs waiting list. After talking to one of Homeland's directors about this little girl, we realized that her needs were far beyond what we could parent. But a tiny seed had been planted in our hearts. We began thinking very much about adopting a child with special needs.

After that phone call, we went back to waiting in line for a referral from Vietnam, although we also began watching the lists of waiting children more closely and wondering if our child might not be "a healthy baby girl from Vietnam" after all.

Amazingly, the director from Homeland never forgot about us. And another Someone never forgot about us, either! Never did we expect God to bring us our Maia the way that He did that night. Never did we expect to jump from Vietnam to China, from a crib to a toddler bed, from the NSN program to the SN program, all in one phone call! But Someone already knew. And Someone had already prepared our hearts. And Someone was already ready.

Maia's file came to us three days later, on a Tuesday afternoon. And when we opened it up for the first time, we KNEW. We KNEW. When God closes one door, He is sure to open another!

Above is the very first picture we ever saw of our Maia!! How precious is she??