a simple phone call to a stranger

today i had the pleasure of chatting with a women in indianapolis, in...her name is ginger... she is the mother of 6 children (4 biological/2 are adopted)...i've been on a web site called china talk...it is a site where you can post questions...read others posting to educate oneself on the china adoption process...different special needs...paper work questions the information truly is endless...jenna another lady i've met during the adoption process posted on china talk a question about small head circumference...ginger responded with a post..from that post she sent me her phone number and said to give her a call...as soon as i read her invitation to call i did just that...called her...again i've been asking God for clarity...He sent me ginger today...i may never actually meet ginger...that doesn't matter because our chat today was just what God had planned for our introduction...this is what she told me: the daughter they were in the process of adopting tragically passed away...through summer's death ginger was given a great gift and ginger (a total stranger)shared with me today has changed my perspective...

August 23, 2007

One year ago today, as I was obliviously going through my life, in far away Hunan China Zhi Xin struggled to hold on to hers. Little Zhi Xin, Summer…the daughter we waited for to soon join our family passed away at 4:00pm. We learned the heartbreaking news from our coordinator the next day; she was devastated, we were devastated.
Zhi Xin, the daughter I never held, never kissed, but truly loved gave me a gift…she changed my perspective. I had been selfish, in the past my prayers had been for God to lead us to a child that would be the perfect fit for our family…now I wanted God, in His grace, to make us the perfect family for this baby. My perspective had changed and I was grateful for it.

i can see clearly that God has chosen our imperfect family to be mallory's family...He will equip up with what mallory needs...He's chosen us for mallory...not mallory for us...i am at peace and my heart is filled with joy with this gift that summer left her mom ginger...and ginger gave to me today...

inner mongolia deserts

inner mongolia is home to gobi desert located in the western part of inner mongolia...gobi desert is the largest desert in china & the 5th largest desert in the world.

where is inner mongolia china?

inner mongolia (the pink region at the top) is located in the northern part of china...baotou is located at the foot of the yinshan mountains, and on banks of the yellow river...the people living in the vast last made some brilliant achievements. baotou has successively won the titles of national civilized city, garden city, and national excellent tourist city. this leisure capital situated on grassland well displays its charm with its natural resources and cultural assumptions.
baotou is mongolian for 'place where deer live'. hence it is called by its other name, the deer city baotou is the largest city which incorporates the largest green area in inner mongolia.
inner mongolia autonomous region, bordering to the north with both the republic of mongolia and russia, is the widest province in china. it is the third largest chinese province (over 1.1 million square kilometers or 424,736 square miles) but not very populated. the province has about 24 million inhabitants. many ethnic groups are living in this area including mongolian, daur, oroqen, ewenki, hui, han, korea. hothhot is the capital of inner mongolia.

mallory's home

this is where mallory lives...baotou social welfare institute in baotou inner mongolia, china...

when God speaks

god spoke to me today unlike any other time in my life...after walking my daily walk with sisco & ruby... i did my normal morning routine...got dressed then decided to change my shirt to a new t-shirt i just bought...while in the check out line in walmart this afternoon a lady taps me on the shoulder and says "that is my favorite bible verse"...on the back of the t-shirt i was wearing is a bible verse...
The Lord your God is with you,
He is mighty to save,
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17i said "thank you"...she asked were she could get this t-shirt...i told her i'd ordered it online www.wildolivetree.com it is a group of ladies who have adopted children...she asked "have you adopted a child?" i said "we are in the process now"....she began to explain to me that God asked her to fast today until sundown, then she said i'm not sure why...i told her i was fasting today also...she asked me why? i told her about mallory lael and how we are concerned about her small head...she then said "I KNOW NOW WHY GOD ASKED ME TO FAST"...her eyes filled with tears...she asked what is your daughter's name? i said "mallory lael"...she repeated her name and then asked me to spell lael L A E L...i then gave her a sticky note and a pen, she wrote down mallory lael as well as the web site for the t-shirts...she then said she was visiting her sister and she lived in boston...during the entire time i felt so peaceful speaking with this lady...she was probably in her late 60...thin, petite with such a loving spirit about her...
was she an angle?
was she someone who made a difference in my life today? YES...
i most likely will never see her again...i will never forget her...if i ever did see her again i would know her without any doubt...she made a comment i don't recall her exact words but what i believe she was saying was this was an appointment by God for she & i to meet...
i wish now that i would of exchange phone numbers with her to tell her about mallory lael when we bring her home...God didn't want us to exchange phone numbers or we would have...that is how God impacted my life today...through this stranger i feel a at peace...thank you Jesus...

giraffe

her "snuggle" monogrammed for her ;) this went in her care package...sandra haygood did a great job on the monogramming...thanks sondra ;)

care package

here are the goodies in mallory's care package...i have to pick up her snuggle giraffe today...hopefully she will get this right after Christmas...you can't send a care package until you receive your PA...we got our PA 2 days ago...