The first time we ever saw Ava's picture was a year ago from yesterday. I had just updated our special needs (SN) profile with our agency, adding heart disease as a special need and increasing the age of child we were willing to adopt. That afternoon our agency said they had a child that fit our profile so I told them to go ahead and email me her information. I was surprised that they had a child. The SN list had just been updated on our agency's website and I didn't see a child that matched. We were headed to the beach that day, so I printed everything they sent so that Derek and I could read it on the way. Of course, we both saw her picture and thought she was absolutely adorable! We read her report and talked a lot about it on the way to the beach that day. We decided to not talk about it with anyone until we knew our decision. It was SO hard not to tell anyone...especially Jonathan and Susan. We were at the beach that weekend together!! We knew that we needed to give it a lot of thought and research some of her medical issues before we made a decision. As we were driving, we saw a huge rainbow from one side of the sky all the way to the other; it was the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen. I really had a good feeling that we had found our daughter. I kept seeing little signs that we were making the right decision to adopt Ava throughout the whole process. Derek would make fun of me, but I think it really helped me. We have been home now for about 5 months and I KNOW that we made the right decision and that Ava was suppose to be our daughter. I couldn't ask for a greater gift in life. She is truly a gift from God.
Ava has been the sweetest, most loving child. She has some physical delays and speech delays, but I know that she will overcome all of these. I got a little overwhelmed after Ava's first visit with the occupational therapist when I realized how much therapy she truly needed. I was thinking about all of this in the car one day when I saw another huge rainbow in front of me. I'm really not usually someone that gives much thought to things like this, but it really gave me a feeling of peace. I truly think that it was God's way of telling me that everything is going to be fine and I know that it is. Thank you God for my wonderful daughter!
The first picture we saw of Ava
A year later...
Playing the Drums at Animal Kingdom
Riding the Teacups at Disney World
The first picture we saw of Ava
3 comments:
I second that. Ava is the sweetest child ever. Sera still asks for her all the time. Whenever she sees a picture of an Asian child now she thinks it either Ava or her.
I believe in rainbows.
I know that signs are not your thing (or mine for that matter), but I totally get that. I didn't realize that you kept that a secret at the beach! Wow, that must have been hard to do. We look forward to watching Ava continue to blossom in the months and years to come and can't wait to see all our kids playing together. God's plans for our lives are greater than anything we could ever conceive or imagine for ourselves!! We love you guys!!
BTW, love the videos from Disney!!! You might need to get Peter a drum set - he was into it!
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