Anna and Nathan

Nathan and Anna in the lobby of the China Hotel, Guangzhou

A few weeks before we were traveling to China, the other adopting parents in our travel group began emailing and introducing ourselves to each other. I sent an email introducing Tony and myself and our 17 month old daughter An Jing.

I received a quick response from one adopting mom, Laura, in my group that said:  Natalie, I have been searching for you for months and months.

She went on to explain that her son that she was adopting, Nathan, was in the foster home "Little Flower Projects" and she had seen several pictures of a little girl "An Jing" in many of the pictures with Nathan.  After Nathan was transferred from Little Flower to his current foster home (which prefers to remain anonymous), An Jing was still in several of his pictures. She then found out that An Jing was being adopted as well and began a search for her parents by posting on adoption groups, etc trying to find us. She had been searching for this little girl's parents for quite some time and then she received my email. While she had been posting all over the internet looking for me, I had inadvertently found her.

Nathan and Anna (and Nathan's nanny) traveling to meet us on Gotcha Day

It turns out that Anna and Nathan have followed the same path for most of their little lives. They both started out at the Anyang Orphanage, then were transferred to The Little Flower Projects (a wonderful foster home!) where they both had their cleft lip surgeries and then they went to the third foster home. And then their path together continued as it turned out that both of their parents not only used the same adoption agency, but they were in the same travel group, would meet their new parents on the same day and would be together for another couple of weeks before they went to their own homes!

I cried and cried when I heard this little miracle. I had been a "little" stressed about getting everything ready for the trip - three tradeshow trips in July and August prior to my trip to China did nothing to help my stress level. I was feeling overwhelmed and worried about a lot of little details.

But when I received Laura's email, I realized the most important detail. These two little abandoned children have been watched over by a loving Heavenly Father from the beginning of their lives. I can't believe that Nathan's parents and Anna's parents being in the same travel group was just a coincidence. And I was so grateful for the miracle of it all.

Anna and Nathan at The Little Flower prior to their cleft lip surgeries.

It was at that point that a peaceful, calm feeling came over me. Everything would work out fine and would be ok. If Heavenly Father could orchestrate their paths to this point, He clearly was in charge.  How grateful I am for these beautiful children, for the kindness and care they received along the way at the different homes they were at and for the watchful care and protection they, along with all of the abandoned children in the world, receive from a loving Heavenly Father.