Lin Xiao

I tear up every time I see my kids' referral pics but this one.......oh, tears might actually fall. This is Madalyn Grace Xiao and it was 6 years ago today that we first saw her beautiful face. This is our first baby, the baby who made me a mama. We had waited 10 1/2 months for our referral (nothing compared to the wait now in China). In April/May of 03, SARS hit and the adoption process was put on hold in China for 5 weeks. We were devastated. We thought this would extend our wait but it actually sped things up. God works that way ya know. We weren't expecting our referral till January 04 but because they were backed up in China, they worked hard to catch up. I was at work that day and Matt received the call. He called me at met me at work and we opened our "present" privately and in the secrecy of my office. I will be honest and say I fretted about whether she would be cute. I have fretted about all my kids. Not that it would have mattered, you know. But boy, when we opened her pic, we couldn't believe how beautiful she was. She just looked angelic to me. And I LOVED her lips. We also thought it was appropriate that she had a Mickey in her basket. We have always wondered if that was intentional on China's part since they knew she was being referred to a family in Orlando. The other funny thing is that China overdresses their kids. They look all bundled up and when we got our hands on her, she was a peanut. I guess you could say getting your referral is like getting the ultrasound pics, but with a lot more detail...lol. Anyway, it's a sweet, sweet day for us as we remember "The Call" for Lin Xiao,which means smile and small. More to come on our journey to get her in the six weeks that followed this day..............