Then and now... 3 years later

On July 25, 2006, we saw the face of our sweet Xi Duo for the first time.  We had been logged in for a couple months and in June we had made the decision to switch to the Waiting Child program.  I remember our agency posting that they had received unexpected referrals.  Their post said that there were only 4 referrals and 100 families on the list and to not be surprised if you didn't get a call.  I remember standing in the kitchen visiting with my Aunt Rose when the phone rang.  I saw AWAA come up on caller ID and just thought there was a question about our special needs application.  Never in my WILDEST dreams did I think that would be THE day!  Allison asked how I was doing and we made a bit of small talk and then she popped the question--they had the file of a little girl andthey wanted to know if we were interested in seeing it...HER.  I was laughing and crying and beside myself with joy!  When I got off the phone with Allison  (saying yes we wanted to see her file!), I called Troy.  I was crying to the point that he thought something was wrong or someone had died!  

I was finally able to get it out that we had a daughter!!! 

 I emailed the file to his office manager's email and we both opened it.  

This is what we saw....

Our beautiful baby girl!  We just knew that she was ours.  

These pictures were taken in April of 2006, just 2 weeks after her lip repair  surgery.  

She was now just 2 weeks shy of her first birthday...

After what seemed like years, but was really 4 months, we held our girl for the first time.

Our first family of 5 photo!

And NOW--

Our beautiful,

sweet,

smart,

dramatic,

and silly~

Princess Shaoey!

We cannot imagine our life without her.  She has brought so much love, laughter, and joy into our lives.  She truly is our Xiduo~much happiness.  We praise God for bringing her into our lives and knowing what we need even when we don't know it ourselves.

Our "surprise referral girls"... Lucy, Shaoey, and AnnaClaire (the 4th one was a little boy who was adopted a few months after our girls)

If you're interested in finding out more about our journey of a lifetime to Shaoey, check out our adoption blog www.journeytoshaoey.com