Angels

Each of our children has a special person who helped lead us to them. For Collin, it was a co-worker of Victor's. We were just starting on our path to adoption and he overheard a co-worker in the workout room talking about his adopted son from Guatemala. Victor didn't know this guy, but went up to him and asked questions. We ended up using the same agency and were blessed with Collin. I don't have a picture of Collin with Mitch, but plan to get one this year. I've included a picture of Collin at about 6 or 7 months old while he was waiting for us in Guatemala. I want all of our children to know about the angel on earth who helped bring us together.

Dylan's angel was our foster family social worker, Shelly. We fostered a baby right before Dylan and I was devastated when she left. Our social worker called the next day and said that even though she knew we really wanted a baby girl, would we consider a premature baby boy who was in the NICU at a local hospital? We didn't think at first that we would adopt Dylan, but you can imagine how quickly that changed. He is so wonderful and we are thankful to Shelly everyday.

Alana's angel has many connections to our family. Meg's youngest daughter, Jillian, was also adopted from China and we first met when Collin and Jillian were in preschool together. Later we found out that Meg and her family also attend our church. Meg's husband, Rick, coached Collin's kindergarten soccer team and Collin and Jillian were in first grade, and now second grade, together. Meg started working part-time at Children's Hope just before we decided to adopt. So when we got serious about international adoption, she was the first person I called. As you all know the rest is history! We now have our wonderful daughter, Alana!

We feel so blessed to have all of these people in our lives and we cherish the special ways they brought us to our children!