June 6th!!!

Today is June 6th...June 6th!! A day we will be forever grateful to someone we will never know, a person in Hengyang China, that saw a basket with a baby in it on the side of a riverbank, and took that precious child to the hospital. A year ago today June 6, 2009, our Avery was found in China. We are so grateful to the person that found her, and to God for keeping her safe in that basket until she was found. We are grateful to the hospital doctors and nurses that responded so quickly to her arm, and to all her nannies that have taken care of her for the past year until she is in our safe arms. There is a lot to be thankful for today...June 6th. As we wait for our travel arrangements to be made there are many thoughts that go through my mind. There is so much waiting and planning, so mjuch heartache, and so much unknown. But I know that we have fallen in love with our little girl more everyday. The more we look at her picture, the questions we ask eachother over dinner while staring at her picture, "I wonder what she sounds
like?", "I wonder how tiny she actually is?", "I wonder if she'll like chocolate like we do?", all these questions that we daily ask eachother until we can get to her and become and find out all these things as a family. Avery is our daughter the daughter we were meant to have to complete us as a family. She is our light at the end of this journey, the light we've been waiting for for so long. She is so special to us, and in more ways than we could ever count. She is our daughter the other half of our hearts, someone we have waited for and longed for forever. We celebrate this day, the day she was found and set on her journey to us, and will remember to always be thankful and grateful to those people that helped our daughter to recover, and who gave her the help she needed-a huge thank you!!



**3 months ago**

Through this process we've had many ups and downs, and more hardship than we have ever experienced so far in our lives. As you switch into the special needs program in this adoption journey there are many factors to consider. One that you don't really take into consideration is when things will go wrong in the process. There is a process once you've chosen a child for you called "locking" in a child. It's when your agency has to enter all your information into a form on the computer and in that child's folder that says you want to be considered to become that child's parents. You only have a certain amount of time to do so, and if it's not entered in that timeframe, you "lose" that child. NO WORRIES AVERY IS OURS I"M TALKING ABOUT 3 MONTHS AGO-WE ARE FINE AND WILL BE GETTING AVERY ASAP, AS SOON AS THE TA ARRIVES-NO WORRIES!!

But this did happen to us 3 months ago, it wasn't our agency's fault per se, the time frame of the lock in was was recently changed by the CCAA in China and the child was "unlocked" early by mistake, and another family "locked" her in after she was unlocked by mistake. We had our agency lawyer involved, and and it was a mess and we were a mess. For 1 week, 3 months ago we went from one spectrum of the emotional scale to the other, and then back up again. I'm only writing about this because people have been wondering about that week. Why I wasn't able to stay in my classes to teach for about 2 days, and why Gary was so upset at work. We feel we don't have anything to hide in this situation, and we have our daughter now, the daughter that was meant for us. It was over Easter weekend, and we ended up finding, and locking, our daughter-Avery Lin, the child we were meant to have, on Good Friday. We are sure we had to go through that some reason but we aren't sure why...

Now, I've never been pregnant, and never "carried" a baby in my belly, but I equate this situation to losing a child in some respect.  It has forever changed us, and made us stronger in some respects, and more cautious in other respects. There are a lot of details I'm leaving out. How the child was unlocked, and the significance of the date of June 6th, and where that literally ties in. I don't want to take away from Avery and the significance of this day to her and us as well. I'm sorry for being vague, but if you email me I can tell you more.

There so many ties between Hunan province, and June 6th, and other places and dates, and it's too much to write here about. But know that June 6th will forever be stamped in our minds. It's the day our daughter was found, in more days than one, and a day we will be forever grateful to many people.



**On a happier note**

We have our 2nd baby shower today at 2:00. It's really special that it is on the same day exactly a year ago that our little ladybug was found, and set on her journey, for all of us to be connected and become a family.

God works in mysterious ways, and we are forever grateful to Him for bringing our Avery to us!!