and the story continues...

Scott and I both spent extra time in prayer over this exciting adoption adventure. It was a loooong month waiting for Scott to say he felt it was right for us to do this. We just prayed during that time - we did not discuss it. I know that God gave me this scripture during that time: Ephesians 2:10 " For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Scott spoke first saying he felt after this time that God was saying "adoption is a good thing". When I shared the scripture I felt God had given me, we felt we were all in agreement.
I went back to the PAC website and saw there were no baby girls ( under 2 years). After 2 more weeks of looking at the children and reading posts on the support group, my friend Amy said " There's a new little girl on the website. Go look!" I did and my interest was definitely piqued. Her name was Kaflaure and she was adorable. At 2 1/2 she was older than I had planned but I was smitten. Her hair had an orange tinge and she had dark circles under her eyes. The picture was taken on the day she was left at the "O" and she looked so sad. Scott and I kept going back to that picture for several days and then we just knew. She was ours! We sent in our committment money and I started on the paperwork with a vengence.
My friend, Amy, made reservations for a Mother's Day to visit her 3 kids at the same "O". Scott said that would be a good time for me to go when I would have a travel companion. Hooray - I was going to meet our little girl! It was hard to wait. I told a friend, Susan, I was going and she said " I would love to go with you!" The next day she made her reservations. That worked out beautifully since Amy decided not to go.
I did not quite make it with having my dossier completed to take with me that week. Despite that, I had an incredible visit. Kaflaure was shy for maybe an hour. After that I was her "mama" and she was quick to let the other kids know that. She had me wrapped around her little finger.
I met her mother, Raymonde - a sweet young girl. She stayed maybe 1/2 an hour. I dressed Kaflaure up to visit and she looked beautiful. I passed Kaflaure to her to visit. She smiled and spoke quietly in her ear and pushed Kaflaure back to me saying something like " Go to your mama". I held her for a few minutes then pushed her back to her mother. I thought she should have a chance to visit. Raymonde pushed her back to me in a minute saying the same thing again. The "O" director translated for us a little.
Kaflaure and I had a great week. I fell in love with that child. I was overwhelmed with the thought of having to leave her for such a long time. It was not in the plan to go back for another visit. She loved to sing so I would sing Jesus loves me and she would sing it back to me. It was precious. I rocked her to sleep that last night while singing Jesus loves me and praying for her. I passed her to the director with one last kiss on her sweet cheek and the promise that I would see her as soon as I could. I came home with a heavy heart -missing her so much already. A month and a half later we got the news that her mother had gotten upset about something and had taken her away. Our little girl was gone. We have had no news of her since.
More later....