November Adoption Update

We are still creeping along the adoption journey.  China matched referrals for the dates Aug. 3-7, 2006.  How can this journey seem so short, yet SO long all in the same moment?   I can't believe that in the Spring of next year (hopefully) we'll finally receive a picture of our daughter and see her face looking back at us from our computer screen.  But, it seems like every month we are just at a snail's pace creeping along a never-ending path.  I've heard time and time again that once you hold your child for the first time in that hotel in China, that all the years of waiting just instantly melt away.  On the flip side, I can't help but think that 4 months old is the youngest I have ever seen matched.  Spring of next year is 4 months from now.  That means that she's already been born and more than likely, already been abandoned.  As happy as I am that she will be part of our family, I realize that she's been left somewhere....abandoned, to now live (temporarily) in an orphanage.  It breaks my heart that I can't get to her now, to feed her, hold her, let her know that she belongs with us.  If you are reading this, please pray for my sweet daughter right now.  Pray that she's comforted, cared for, well fed and healthy.  Also, please pray for her birth parents.  China has a different thought about children, about their daughters, but I can't help but think that her birth mother is aching for her.  Replaying the day that she left her somewhere and then walked away.  I tell myself that if there was ANY other way, she wouldn't have abandoned her.  I want my daughter to be wanted, loved and greatly missed by her birth family.  I hope they just couldn't parent her for whatever reason and knew abandonment was the only way they could selflessly ensure she would be taken care of.  And WILL she be taken care of.....I have two big sisters here who can't wait for her to come home.  This was our last Thanksgiving as a family of 4, that's something to be thankful for!