Adopting Again

 The path that led us to decide to adopt again started a long time ago.  It actually started before we were even matched with Joshua.  In July of 2008 I had a dream that we would one day adopt a little girl.  This dream was so vivid and real, but even more than that, I felt so much peace and love in my heart that I knew this dream meant something.  I thought for sure that one day, when the call came, we were going to be matched with a little girl.  When we found out we were matched with Joshua one of my first thoughts was that we would one day adopt again.  At the time I didn't know if we would adopt from the Philippines again or from somewhere else.  When we went to pick Joshua up I prayed that while we were there I would be inspired to know if that is where our daughter would be from.  I didn't realize then that the dream I had years before would help to answer this question for us.  One of the very specific and unusual things I remembered from my dream was that I saw a beautiful tree with purple blossoms on it.  I had never seen a tree with purple blossoms, so it kind of took me by surprise and was one of the things that I remembered most about my dream.  While we were in the Philippines, before we picked up our son, we decided to take a trip to the LDS Manila Temple.  This is a place that is very sacred and special to us.  On the drive to the temple we started seeing trees with purple blossoms and then at the temple we saw more trees with purple blossoms.  This is when I knew that the Lord was telling me that our daughter would be born in the Philippines.

Because Joshua's adoption process was so long, so frustrating, and so expensive, I knew it was not going to be easy to get my husband to agree to do it all over again.  Fortunately, after a lot of prayer, a couple years, and a really big miracle his heart was touched and he finally agreed that it was time to adopt again.  He was not the only obstacle on our path to this next adoption.  We have already seen many miracles where the Lord has opened the door for us to allow this to happen.  There was a time when I didn't think it would ever be possible for us to adopt again.  Thankfully the Lord knows more than us and He has made it possible for us to adopt again.  I am so excited and can't wait to see where this journey leads us and what very special little girl will soon become a part of our life and our family.