It was the month of Theodore’s 3rd year home and we never dreamed we would get to spend it with the ones where it all began…..

In the middle of the night, over the Pacific Ocean I met a stranger who has become one of my best friends. She was standing in the huge jet in the restroom line where I stood stretching my legs. She had 2 beautiful little Chinese girls with her. One on her hip and another at her feet. I leaned towards her and said, “Aren’t you going the wrong direction?” Meaning we were headed TO China and since it looked like she already had adopted children shouldn’t she be headed back to the U.S.??

With a grin she replied, “Oh it may seem that way. These are our two daughters we have already adopted and we are on our way to adopt another little girl.”

Our conversation led to discover that out of the whole of China, we were headed to the same city of Nanning.

When we landed, our new friends, Scott and Sharon, shared a subway with us while we waited to catch our next short flight into the province of Guangxi which lies not far from the Vietnam border.

It’s hard to believe that Theodore met our new friends’ daughter, Calla, before each of us adopted parents met them. They came from two different orphanages in two different cities, but traveled to meet in the city where our adoption business took place.

Worn out from their travels, I can only imagine if Theodore and Calla talked or played a bit as they waited in that cold government office about to have their lives changed forever.

Not to mention our lives changed FOREVER!

My friendship with Shay has been an unusual one that has mainly taken place over our Voxer app. Shay’s love, wisdom, insight on adoption and homeschooling have all been a huge gift from the Lord to ME!

Fast forward 3 years to when our family had the chance to visit this precious family at their home in Georgia. It was 3 years too long to make this happen!

Seven of their 10 children range in close age of our 6 children. It was an amazing day of swimming, playing, laughing, and feeding lots of mouths. My favorite part of the day other than having a face to face conversation with Shay was watching the kids’ friendships grow as ours has over the past few years.

Shay and I could NOT get over Theodore and Calla’s day of playing side by side from the minute we got there.

Oh what a glorious 3rd Gotcha Day! XOXO

Here is a link to Sharon’s wonderful blog : http://everythingbeautifulshay.blogspot.com/2019/05/very-special-visitors.html?m=1 ❤️