Yes! The paperwork was done for us to receive our referral. I was so ecstatic! The adoption agency said that it would be another week or two until we received our referral as I was packing for a trip to Atlanta, Georgia with some friends to a Braves baseball game and to Six Flags.

The trip was really fun, but I still thought about my unknown sister in China. I wrote in my journal about the updates of the adoption and what I was doing to survive the long wait.

It was June 24, 2005 on my dad’s birthday. My friends and I were pulling into our church parking lot when the van doors opened and my mom’s head popped in with a HUGE smile was on her face. I knew what it was. “Mom,” I said, “is that…” before I could say anything she said, “Yes, it’s your sister.” My heart skipped a beat. There I was holding the pictures on my sister, Fu Ai Rong, a gorgeous nine-month baby girl who was abandoned in a cardboard box, wrapped in an army coat with a bottle, in front of the yellow gates of the Fuling Orphanage. Our soon to be Gracie was amazing, she was an “Amazing Grace.” I ran in the parking lot yelling, “It’s my sister, it’s my sister Gracie!” Everyone was so happy for our family but most of all, I was the happiest.

When I got home I looked at the e-mail Mom received from the adoption agency telling us all about Ai Rong. I wanted to know everything about her. I started putting together my toys from when I was little and making a pile for her. I wanted to do anything I could to get ready for this new little one.

That night my mom, dad, and I went out to eat to celebrate Daddy’s birthday and to celebrate his birthday gift, our referral of soon to be, Gracesyn.