"Greetings, Dear Daughter"

This is our final letter (below) to our little Xiao Qian before we meet in almost exactly two weeks. It will be delivered to her by our emissary in China, Angela (who has been such a blessing to us in our adoption of Willow, and now Xiao Qian). Victoria crafted this letter after she asked me if I wanted to weigh in with some thoughts of my own. Knowing I could not possibly improve upon Victoria's tender, motherly sense to meet Xiao Qian in perhaps one of the most vulnerable times of her life, I unhesitatingly declined. After reading what Victoria wrote, I was almost brought to tears trying to imagine Xiao Qian musing over it with excitement, wonder, sorrow, confusion, fear, resignation and acceptance.

Dear Xiao Qian,

Greetings dear daughter. We are busily preparing to meet you in a very short time. After a long year of paperwork and many prayers, we will be honored to become your parents on Jan. 25th!

Every day we are preparing for our trip. We have our airplane tickets, as well as your ticket for the flight home. We also have some fun trips planned for the time we will spend with you in your country too. We think of you everyday, and your new brothers and sisters are all excited to meet you and welcome you to our family. We cannot bring them on our trip as they all have school, but they will meet you as soon as we arrive back in California. Your oldest brother Austin, and his new wife Meagan are coming all the way from Colorado to take care of your 2 little sisters so that we can travel to bring you home.

We think that you are a very brave girl to take this new step in your life and we will ALWAYS be at your side to help you and love and support you. We always pray and hope that you will feel at peace in our home, and that we can make this next year a very good year for you! We are so happy and filled with joy to become your parents.

Blessings dear Xiao Qian... we shall see you very soon.

With love from our hearts, Father (Tom), Mother (Victoria) and brothers and sisters, Austin, Meagan, Annie, Barret, Poppy and Willow

I love you, Victoria. This little girl will soon discover, like all of us that have gone before her, what a remarkable woman you are, and what a loving mother you will be to her for the remainder of her life. She shall one day rise up and call you "blessed" (cf. Proverbs 31:28).