Maybe ... God Willing ... " A 'Miss Donna'"

Willow's "Finding Ad", published in the Wuchuan newspaper in November 2007, when Willow was approximately 6 months of age. This is the earliest photo we have of Willow, who is pictured on the left (thank you to Brian Stuy, researchchina.org). The precious girl on the right is discussed below.

My last blog was about my new life, that is, specifically about a new friend that Willow and I have here in Minnesota. That post provided the inspiration to mention another wonderful friend ... an amazing friend I have never met. Her daughter, Faith, and Willow are from the same orphange, and were adopted by us--their forever families--only 3 weeks apart. In addition, their "finding ads" were published in the newspaper at the same time (and the girls were next to each other: Willow is in the middle, and Faith is on the right (she's 3 months younger than Willow). To protect her anonymity (no last name), let me introduce the amazing Miss Donna (she's from the south, so this is the appropriate moniker). There are no coincidences; there is kismet. There is Miss Donna.

The Adoption-ator
Donna is grace, Donna is a force. Donna is unrelenting determination: a heat seeking missle when it comes to negotiating the world of international adoption and encouraging everyone to consider adoption as an option. Not sure if she has a photographic memory, but she knows more details about international adoption than most professionals working in the field. And, dang it, she's always right :) This statement won't mean much to those of you who aren't adoptive parents, but Miss Donna was the first person in the United States to negotiate her way through USCIS and the new (2008) Hague Treaty on International Adoption regulations without a hitch (every other documentation had been returned to the applicant because of errors or missing info). Donna has four children, two of whom were adopted from China. Her family is wonderful, but I'd expect nothing less from this Mama Polar Bear.

Toe cuteness.

Related to the above discussion (about Donna) is the news that Chris and I have decided we will try to adopt another little one from an orphange in China. Because of certain age regulations, the mounds of dossier paperwork has to be in China by July. The only way we can accomplish this will be to pull a Miss Donna, seriously. She's "on the case", willing to help, and I am grateful.
Change of topic. I put a finger puppet on Willow's zebra pull-toy. The phone rang ... we got involved in other activities. It wasn't until later that I noticed the riding partners Willow had created in my absence:

Riding partners (by Mommy).

Obviously Willow grasped the concept: this is what I discovered later, when I walked back into the room we had been playing in. She slays us.