Coming Full Circle (part 3)...

I sat at our desk for about half an hour before I moved a muscle. Really, Lord? After the tension in this house over the past few weeks? You give me THIS? What am I suppose to do with THIS? You KNOW he's going to say no. What's the point? This all seems a little too good to be true, which has happened before, so why would this scenario be any different than the others?

BUT...

How can I ignore the obvious? He has eyes just like Mei Mei? His name is "Little Buddy"? This list says You created him just like Wild Man? What are all these butterflies flipping around in my stomach?

So what did I do? I did what any emotionally confused wife would do. I woke my husband from a dead sleep at midnight, insisted he get out of bed and come see something I was certain he wouldn't be excited about seeing (but I was going to show him anyway). ;) Convincing, huh? I explained to him that I knew he wouldn't want to see what I needed to show him. However, I NEEDED him to see it. Right now. Not tomorrow. NOW.

Reluctantly and with one eye open he staggered across the house to see what I had found. I explained all the reasons he should want to see this. 1...2...3...4... See? Isn't it interesting? Don't you find the details the least bit interesting? {chirp--chirp--crickets} His reply? "I'm going back to bed". Hmmmmph. Well, THAT went well.

The next day I couldn't stop thinking about "Little Buddy". I had been waiting but didn't know what I was waiting on. What if he was it? What if there was more to his story? I needed to know more so, unbeknownst to the Chief, I contacted the agency and requested the file. Within a few hours it was sitting in my Inbox.

Very quickly I discovered several more similarities within his full file...

-Little Buddy is from the same Chinese province as our Mei Mei. China is an enormous country with billions of people and their cities are in the same province less than two hours apart.

-At the time we were in China adopting Mei Mei, Little Buddy was two months shy of being born with birth parents likely living a few hours away from us. I remember feeling as if we would return but did not know for what reason. I certainly didn't feel it would be for another adoption when I wrote this. I was reminded of this post when I did the math and realized he was there when we were there.

-He was born on the birthday of one of my very best friends of nearly 20 years. This is the same friend who delivered her son while we were in China and welcomed us home at the airport less than a week later.

-He is 21 months younger than Mei Mei who happens to be 21 months younger than Little Miss.

-While we were planning the final details of Mei Mei's first birthday celebration at home, Little Buddy was entering his new home at the orphanage. This was also around the time (spring 2010) I started feeling as if we had room for one more.

-In the spring of this year my sweet friend Julie told me to "close my mouth and pray. Stop talking to him and start talking to Him". Remember that conversation? Well, according to his file, around the very same time Little Buddy's orphanage began preparing his paperwork for adoption. Coincidence? I don't think so...

All of these were small yet significant details. However, the ones that stopped me in my tracks were the ones concerning Little Buddy's special needs and development. When I read his file it was as if I was reading about Wild Man. Even their growth chart curves mirror each other. The only difference is Wild Man had a family. A family who made sure he received the medical treatment, surgery and therapy he needed to thrive. Little Buddy? He has no one. That was enough to prevent me from walking away...not yet.