So Happy for Her!

My next-door-neighbor, the Lovely S, is amazing. She is the mother of four boys. She home schools. She is a minister's wife, with all that entails. She keeps an immaculate house (and doesn't hold mine against me!). She is a beautiful person, both inside and out.

But after four children, she just didn't feel like her family was complete. Sure, she could have another baby, but there are so many babies out there who need mothers. She told her husband that she felt like her ministry was to the children. So they decided to adopt.

They started the paperwork for a foreign adoption last fall. They were told that the wheels turn slowly, and that recently, Ethiopia had added a lot more red tape to the procedure. If all went exactly according to plan, they could expect to have a new child around next Christmas.

Then last week they got a call from their caseworker. She was calling to tell them that there were a couple of bureaucratic hoops they needed to jump through and, oh, to do it quickly because they had a referral. Little Girl M.

They were expecting a baby, but Little Girl M is two-and-a-half. It took them a minute to wrap their brains around that, but now they think it may be for the best. She will be nearly the same age as two of her cousins, and old enough to play with Z. I can't wait to see Z mothering (and by mothering, I mean bossing) Little Girl M and dressing her up like a living doll in her dress-up clothes.

The Lovely S is SO very happy. She will be an amazing mother to the lucky Little Girl M. Little Girl M will have four of the sweetest big brothers out there, and a doting Daddy besides. They are expecting her to come home by June. I can't wait to meet her.