Adoption Story - Part 3

One of my favorite stories from our adoption journey is telling my family that we had a daughter.

Based on our original timeline, we would receive our child’s file sometime in October and travel around the holidays. When we decided to pursue the Waiting Child adoption, our timeline changed. It would still be a long time before we traveled, but we already had our daughter’s pictures and information and it was only March.

The Tuesday afternoon that we were notified that we were chosen as Rao Xuanmin’s family, I sat down at my computer. I attached the best picture to an email simply titled “Cute pic of your granddaughter” and sent it to my mom at work. I knew the title would make her think it was just a picture of K and I timed it so that it would arrive just after she got her students onto the bus and she had made it back to her room.

When my mom sat down at her computer, she opened the email and screamed so loud that the other teachers in the hall came flying down to her room to see what in the heck had happened. And my mom is not a screamer.

Five minutes after I sent the email, my mom called in shock and joy demanding an explanation. I laughed and told her everything that had happened. I sent her the other pictures and the short description we had of Xaunmin’s personality, which stated she was “quiet and lovely”. My mom sent it to my dad, then printed it out and carried it over to my grandmother’s house where she called her sisters to come and see her new granddaughter. They pronounced her the most beautiful baby in existence with gorgeous eyes and the most perfect bow-shaped mouth.

They were right; she was definitely a beautiful baby.