Sarah and Lydia

Well Tuesday Emma Lin and I went for a little trip to visit some important people in our lives. Little does Emma understand now just how important these people are to her life. First we started the day off with our usual playtime, breakfest and bath. After we got dresses we got into the car to make a trip to Fort Washington, where Living Hope our adoption agency is located. For the first time Emma Lin met Sarah our social worker. Little does Emma know or understand that if it wasn't for Sarah she wouldn't be our daughter. For my family and friends that don't understand the adoption process I will explain. There are two choices right now if you adopt from China. One is the regular program. You sign up go though the paperwork home study etc and get a log in date. When China reaches your log in date (right now the wait time is about 4-5 years) you are matched with a child that the CCAA decides is a match for your family. As of right now we don't know why they pick the child for the family, some people say they try to find similar facial features, but as of right now I am not sure why exactly why they pick who for who. Then there is the Special Needs program. That is what program me and Ryan were in. How that works is about once a month a list comes out with children of all ages and different medical conditions. Some drastic and some really minor and some are just older healthy children. When the list comes out the social worker locks in file for families to match which medical need the family feels works for them. When you sign up for the program you and your social worker go over the different needs that will work for your family. The social worker has the task of matching a child with a family. I can't image doing that job, I really would love to do it once because it has to be the best feeling in the world to find a child for a loving family. We were 4 or 5th on the list when Sarah our social worker found Emma for us. I often wonder why she choose Emma for us and not one of the other families ahead of us. Her needs seemed minor and how did we get so lucky.
Which brings me to our next visit, little Lydia. She is the daughter to a family who received a referral on the same day as us. Sometimes I look at her pic and wonder how did our social make all these decisions for us. What drew Lydia pic to her family? Well needless to say Sarah did an excellent job and found us the most wonderful babies and I can't ever thank her enough for matching us with Emma Lin.
We were so happy to meet Lydia and her family, I feel a little connection to them because we shared something on Jan. 19th that know one else can understand. The fact that we were matched on the same day from the same special needs list brings us together. Hopefully Emma and Lydia can grow up and become friends, have each other to talk to and know that on Jan 19 their parents feel in love with them thru a picture on an email from the greatest lady ever.
Thanks Kelly for the play date and thanks Sarah for the visit. I can't wait till Emma is old enough to understand and tell her all about you and hopefully get to meet you in person.

Enjoy the pics of the kids, they really didn't play together but seemed like they had a nice time with the company. I will post a pic of Emma and Sarah when I get to work. I can't do it from this computer!