22 June MMXVI

16 June 2014: Song-Felicity was lovingly surrendered by her China family in a painfully deep hope that her medical needs could be met by another another family who would have the means and the desire to care for her.

16 June 2015: Song-Felicity was born into my heart. I saw a picture of her sweet face for the first time and recognized her as mine on a deep and spiritual level. When I reviewed her file, I recognized instantly that I had found her on the exact anniversary of the day she had been left in a desperate hope that she would be found. I spent the night in prayer asking God to affirm what I was feeling if it was from Him. In the next hours and days, He made it abundantly clear that it was.

16 June 2016: The first day we were cleared to leave China after finalizing Song-Felicity’s adoption and receiving her passport and visa. Our flight left Hong Kong early June 16th. And because our home is twelve hours behind Song-Felicity’s home province, we said farewell to China AND arrived home on June 16th.
What are the chances of this same date resurrecting again and again at such significant times? God has winked at me and reassured me with June 16th love pats through this entire sacred journey to my daughter. The date has been quietly woven into the whole tapestry of our separate journeys that are now eternally intertwined.

And June 16ths remain intertwined with her China family’s June 16th too. It did not escape me as we left our hotel for the Hong Kong airport in the early morning hours of June 16th that another family, likely not too far from us then, may have been awake in those early hours, too, and remembering the June 16th that broke their hearts two years ago. Their broken hearts and our joyful ones will now be joined for all eternity through this tiny child who will always connect us.

This child who just fell asleep in my arms a few minutes ago.