Accidentally In Love!

This is Cheryl (the mom of Reese, and Monica, and Scott, too). I don't post as often as Monica, but here I am.

When we started the adoption process for Reese, I foolishly thought if I could talk James into one daughter from China, I could talk him into another. What I didn't count on was the process taking longer than I first thought (not China's fault, but that's another story). Then shortly after we brought her home, just when we were beginning to settle into some sort of normalcy, DH James was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Now, this was frightening and unsettling and rocked our world, but as I tell people, once he got past the surgery recovery, it was not an issue. Early detection means it was caught so early, we could have watched and waited. We are not watch and wait people. We had a three-year-old, and we needed Daddy healthy. So, he decided to have the surgery, and it was done. All tests have been negative since (Thanks Lord!), and life goes on.

Now , China has a new set of rules (post-Reese) and we didn't even want to ask for another, because well, we didn't qualify under more than one of those new rules.

Now-I would lead you to believe that James was all for going to China again, and adding to our family. Not the case. And honestly, 45 hit  me, and I thought, okay, I guess we're done.

This summer we took Reese (age 7) to Dillon International's China Camp in Tulsa. Let me just say, from the moment we hit the hotel, and she saw the first kiddo who "looks like me", I had a suspicion we were having a change of heart. After watching her interact with her new friends, we realized the greatest affirmation we could give her of how special she is to us, would be a little sister, from China, with her special need. We had seen the pictures of a precious little girl, and we were advocating for her to find a family. Finally, the agency asked if we were interested. Um HELLO? We're OLD. We have had a cancer diagnosis. A small (but manageable) list of reasons why not, became "all they can do is say no".

That's how we fell "accidentally in love" with Ana-Cherie. China said "yes", and we are over the moon, but so surprised! We can't wait to travel next year, and bring her home. Stay tuned!