Who said 13 is an unlucky number?

So, yesterday morning happened to be one of the most thrilling times ever!  I have to back up a bit for it all to make sense though.  Thankfully, on our Gotcha Day for Audrey An I was impressed to ask for an email address of the sweet nanny who brought AA to us.  It took me awhile to muster up enough courage to email her- not sure why!  After we had AA for about 10 months I decided to email her.  I couldn't make out one character in the address (and you kinda need to know the complete address in order for it to go through!).  After 13 attempts (I tried every possible combination under the sun!) in 4 months and the enlistment of two other friends who speak chinese and helped me decipher "that one character" I got a response!  My email to the director was a thank you note with updated pictures of Audrey An.  I asked her to please forward it to her foster family. We wanted to make sure they knew of our gratitude for loving her and taking care of her until we were able to bring her into our family.

Well, on Christmas Eve of 2010 and New Year's Day of this year I received another email stating the foster family wanted to contact me.  I said that would be fabulous!  The orphanage worker forwarded them our email address, and we've had numerous email exchanges ever since.

About two months ago her foster sister (the one who emails us) added us on skype.  I completely panicked-again- not sure why!  I told her (via email) AA was asleep (which was true!) and asked when we could skype.  Although we've talked numerous times with AA about the possibility of skyping and hopefully visiting her foster family one day we had to prepare little AA's heart for it really happening!  ooh.my.word....I was thinking, "Could this miracle actually be happening????"  David told me to go with the moment and chat with her right then on line, but I was too concerned with how I looked!  I didn't want to meet AA's foster sister when I had my jammies on and my wet and wild hair sticking out everywhere...seriously.  So, I did what any normal person would do.  "Abby, hold the laptop and let me go put a normal shirt on at least.  Oh! and don't answer skype until I get back!  David, Get the camera!"  I wiped off my mascara that was underneath my eyes that made me look like I had been in a fight or something, took a deep breath, and by the time I got back she was off-line.  Maybe I missed the perfect opportunity, but honestly, I don't think my heart was quite ready for that!  We've talked and prayed with Audrey An about it before, but NOW it was like a real possibility- oh my!  So, David, Abs and I prayed that night together about all the hearts involved and the timing of the "meeting", signed off, and went to bed.  yeah, right!?!?!  Like I really could sleep that night!!!!

Okay, so fast forward to today!  We had set up a time to skype on Saturday, but it never happened for some reason.  THEN...as we were about to walk out the door, AA's foster sister called!  We "talked" for 50 minutes...amazing!  At first, they could see us, but we couldn't see them.  So we didn't know if it was the entire family seeing us or what.  Of course, we couldn't understand what they were saying and we had previously let them know we had downloaded a program that would translate our messaging in real time.  I had warned the foster family that AA only speaks english so they wouldn't be taken back with her lack of verbal communication with them.  We had some technical difficulties, but then their video feed came through and I started tearing up, then foster mommy was wiping tears, too.  It was absolutely precious and soooo surreal!

saying "ni hao" after two years!

Such a thrilling moment...I'll never forget it!  Audrey An seemed genuinely happy to see them...lots of smiles, and we all blew them kisses goodbye (until the next skype date!)!  She asked about their dog, baba (foster daddy) and Nai Nai (paternal grandmother).  I never really knew to believe her about the dog, but she did have a dog and we know the name now!  I'm sure that made them happy to hear her ask about something she remembered with them. 

So, I'd say 13 is not an unlucky number!  13 emails, lots of persistence, patience and perfect timing landed us this picture of Audrey An, foster sister, two foster brothers and foster mommy.  Tonight before dinner AA asked to say the blessing and she said, "Thank you for answering our prayer about my foster family."  wow...

What an absolute miracle and blessing from above!