How We Found Our Daughter!

As stated before we knew that since we adopted from China in December of 2012 that we had the option to adopt a Special Focus child and reuse our dossier for up to one year.  This had been in the back of my mind since returning home from China.  I was looking a lists of waiting children within days of returning in January. While we were in China we visited our newest daughter Maya's orphanage as well as our oldest daughter, Mary Bailey's.  There is absolutely no way to shut out the images of all the sweet little faces waiting on families. Those faces haunted me daily and continue to do so.  I am borrowing this photo from a friend's blog.  It was taken at Maya's orphanage.  We saw similar images.

There were babies in this stainless steel rolling cart.  Each of these beds were occupied although some children were not in their beds.  We saw newborns wailing and no one acknowledging that they existed. Older children were lying in beds sucking fingers and other self-stimulating behaviors making no sounds. They had learned to not cry.  It is easy to close your eyes and pretend it is not there but seeing firsthand is life-changing.

We knew that if we were going to reuse our dossier then we had to make a decision.  In May we were approaching the six month mark and I began to pray.  I asked God that if it was His will for us to adopt again to please place a child directly in front of me and let me know without a shadow of a doubt that she was ours.  I also prayed and asked God that if our family was complete to please let me know the door was closed.

One Friday night in late May I was looking at photo listings on Reece's Rainbow.  I saw a child listed as "Darcy".  I knew without a doubt that she was my daughter.  I could not get her off of my mind the entire night.  The next morning I emailed and posted on RR's Facebook asking how I could see her file.  I was told that she had been matched with a family.  I was very sad in a selfish way but happy for her.  The next week I contacted a few friends who I know are advocates in the adoption.  I asked if they knew of any children available for adoption in the age range we were seeking.  I was sent multiple files but none felt like a fit for our family.  I then looked at our previous agencies individual listing of children and saw two new girls.  I emailed and asked for their diagnosis.  Neither was a fit for our family either.   The worker asked me to please email her a list of conditions that we were willing to accept and age range.  This was done.  She immediately messaged back and told me that they had an eight year old girl's file who they had not had time to post on their listings yet.  I was asked if I would like to see it.  I stated "yes" and the file was sent.  I opened the file to see "DARCY"!!  She had been matched with a family through a different agency but the family could not continue.  Her file had been given to our agency to try and match!   I knew at that moment that it was meant to be.