First meeting

We introduced ourselves to one of the people in charge, and we expressed our desire to specifically meet Viviana and Juan David.

“That’s so great you came all this way to meet these kids! You should try to get to know several of the kids because there’s always a chance their hosting family will decide to adopt them.” Her advice made sense. 

Mike and I glanced quickly at each other and shook our heads.

“You know, we only feel a tug on our hearts for these specific siblings, Juan David and Viviana.” They already claimed our hearts. We agreed we didn’t feel pulled toward any of the other children.

The coordinator then introduced us to the couple hosting Juan David and Viviana for the summer, and we sat and talked with them for a while. They told us what they knew so far about the kids and their history.

“They have an older half-brother, Julian, but apparently he’s not adoptable. He just wants his siblings to be adopted together. They all live in the same orphanage, but in different homes.” They talked more about the kids’ personalities and preferences while we all sat watching them play in the water.

David didn’t want to play in the water alone, so Mike and I got in with him for a little bit. He took his soccer ball to toss back and forth, and before we knew it, we’d inched our way close to Viviana and tossed the ball to her. What a surreal moment to realize the little girl from the picture on my refrigerator stood right in front of me, tossing a soccer ball back and forth with David in the water. When I later printed out the picture I’d snapped of the two of them, I couldn’t help but wonder if it represented our first picture of David and his little sister.

Juan David swam in the deeper part of the lake with the majority of the older kids. We interacted very little with him while in the water, but we stole a chance to talk with him by the picnic table at dinner time while he devoured hot dog after hot dog. He and I talked about his school, his class, his birthday, and his love of Math and soccer. An outgoing child, he enjoyed every minute playing in the water with other kids close to his age, eager to meet so many new people.

Pretty quickly after eating, all the kids jumped back into the water. I knew I wanted to come back the following week to get to know these kids even more, but I hadn’t said anything to Mike yet, nor had he said anything to me.

Before we even found a chance to talk about it, the man hosting the children asked if we’d like to come back the following weekend to spend some more focused time alone with those two.

“You know, we’d love that!” We both quickly agreed.

“Okay, then why don’t we meet up for lunch next Saturday before the bowling event? Maybe we can arrange a picnic or something to give you a chance to talk with the kids.” He said he’d stay in touch via e-mail sometime during the week to work out the details.

“Okay, God, could this get any easier or work out any better? Thank you!” The pieces almost naturally connected to make this work.

Although the couple considered the thought of adopting them, they could see these kids would fit well into our family—Juan David, with his soccer and Math in common with David (at the time, Mike even coached David’s soccer team, too), and only a few months separated David and Viviana in age. She showed a definite need for extra attention in school, so my occupation as a bilingual teacher a grade level above her could only serve as a huge benefit to her.

Another family also sparked up a conversation with us later in the day. “So, you guys came all the way from Dallas for this?”

“You know, those little pictures just kept tugging on our hearts ever since we saw them.  We came down just to see.”

Only a year earlier, they, too, visited an activity for the same reason. Now they sat across from us with their recently adopted son. Wow. Would we follow in their footsteps?

The day soon came to a close, and we headed back to our friends’ house to gather our things and say goodbye. They rejoiced with us over our invitation to return the following weekend, graciously extending the offer to stay with them again. God showed us His provisions from the start. Now I needed to patiently wait yet another whole week before I could see those precious children again.