I Got A Picture!

Two years ago today we got this simple message from our agency;

"Subject: I got a picture!

Lori,

We were able to get a picture of the girl! I don’t have the exact birth date but they told us she will be 2 at the end of December. She appears healthy too."

Attached to the email was a picture that would forever change our lives...

We had already "accepted the referral" based on the phone call a week earlier. On the call our agency Director shared the briefest description of her personality and health and approximate age, she apologized that the child was not younger and told me that other infants would be available soon. It wasn't nearly enough to make such an important decision but I knew instantly that we were supposed to adopt this child. Call it what you will but for me at that instant the peace of God came over me and I knew this was my daughter. After that there was no doubt or fear. I never asked for a medical review or met another child and truth be told, I said yes without even talking first to Dart. She was ours, it was His plan, the rest was details.

I got the email at work and rushed home to open it with Dart.  The older boys were already home from school and Aidan pulled out the video camera. Having been told she was Russian and in Ust I was expecting a blond blue eyed child and frankly I was quietly disappointed, not because blond blued eyed children aren't beautiful (I have two) but for two years I carried an image of an olive skinned, brown-eyed daughter. Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw this little beauty. OK you don't have to imagine, just watch...