Mariah ~ Mommy Card Extravaganza - That might be a bit of an exaggeration

 My little girl burnt her little finger really bad yesterday on the stove. I'm not sure which one of us felt worse. So since she was having a rough time sleeping because her finger was really hurting, we decided to make a video together. Mariah is 12, she has down syndrome, and functions at about the age of a 3 year old. She lights up my life and I am so happy to have her. I can't imagine our family without her. It's really an amazing story, how Mariah came to be a part of our family. We adopted Jesse right before he turned 3 and he also has Down Syndrome. He fit into our family like he was made for it. He had several health problems, ~ leukemia, a hole in his heart, vision and hearing problems. But we new if God had given him the strength to fight this all by himself, that we could definitely make it as a family. We had been foster parents to 2 children that we had had for many many years and thought that we would get to adopt them too. But after 6 years, they were returned to their mother. Which was just heart breaking. After about a year, our worker called and wanted to know if we would consider adopting again. I immediately said Yes. My husband was a little more specific. He said that we would like to adopt a little girl this time, with down syndrome. That is was okay if she had her heart surgery or still needed one (Needing heart surgery is very common for children with down syndrome.) and he'd like her to be 2 to 3 years of age. Well, needless to say the chances of their being a child out there with downs and available for adoption was slim. The very next day our worker received a call from another worker in another county. Which is odd, because most adoptions are done locally and not between different counties. The 2 ladies had never met, but seen each others names in a flyer sent to all the offices. She went to work and said that she just felt like God was telling her to call. When they spoke the first time, she said I know this is a long shot, but would you have any parents approved for adoption that you think would consider taking a special needs child with down syndrome. She's 2 and will be 3 in august. She had open heart surgery when she was born, but needs to have it again next month. Our worker couldn't believe what she was hearing and neither could we when she called. They said it would take 10 days for all of the paper work to go through, but the home Mariah was in was closing and she'd have to be placed in another home before we could get her. Well, needless to say, we prayed and we prayed hard. We didn't want her with another group of strangers, but 10 days was the fastest they have ever been able to get all the papers together. I know God had his hand in this and in 3 days we were going to pick up our beautiful little girl. She was almost 3 years old and wore size 6 month clothes. This year was the first year that I had to shop outside of the baby department for school clothes for her. She is really growing up and I love her with all my heart.
Thanks for listening to the story of how I received one of the loves of my life.
Thanks for visiting and happy crafting.
God Bless
Sherry