We started our adoption Journey on my birthday 8/13/13. Steve threw me a surprise party and my gift was an application to Holt completely filled out. We started the process two weeks later.

We received the call on April fool’s day at about 5pm and I was totally caught off guard. It was our Social Worker, “ I have a file for you to review”. I could hardly contain my excitement as I logged into our computer. “Beware she said read the entire file before you look at her picture”. I tried really hard to follow her instructions, but curiosity got the better of me and I scrolled down to see the most beautiful bright eyed little girl and that was it she was our daughter! I knew as I had known with her sister, this was the child that God had picked for us. Steve came home shortly after, I tried to wait for him but he gave me the go ahead to look it over. I gave him the rundown and then showed him the picture and he agreed she was our Hope!

Confirmation: We had the name Hope picked out before we even began this adoption. In fact it was engraved on a necklace my husband had given me for Christmas the year before along with our other kid’s names. In her file it stated that her name meant Hope for a bright future! This is also part of the Bible verse that I have been praying over the month before her referral!

Second confirmation was a little fun game we played back in October. Everyone in the family made a guess as to when her Birthday would be. I sealed it away and opened it one week after our referral. I had guessed the exact date! And here’s the thing, the guess I made was totally random, the date really had no significance until now!

We have been really lucky to have received several updates and videos of her along the way.

She is currently in a foster home and appears to be doing great. She is a big girl measuring 75% in height and weight for her age. She loves playing with other kids and appears to have a very mellow, quiet personality.