God's Plan

I believe that everything happens for a reason and God has a plan for everybody. I sincerely believe Gabriella was meant to be my daughter. My mother concurs and she and I have discussed this extensively. Upon the referral there were two noteworthy events that further convinced me of this.

The first, most impactful realization, had to do with the name her birth mom and I chose for her. I chose the name Gabriella for my daughter. Gabriella is Hebrew in origin and means, "God is my strength." Gabriella’s birth mom chose Astrid as her name. Astrid is Scandinavian in origin and means, “God’s strength or diving strength.” I find it jaw-dropping that out of all of the possible names to choose, both her birth mom and I chose names for her with basically the same meaning. Also, with Gabriella Astrid as her name, my friend Danie pointed out, “she will have a double dose of God’s strength!”

The second is that my application was completed much quicker than normal based on my original estimates compared to typical timelines. Yet, without this fast pace, I probably would have missed the ability to adopt from Guatemala. When I contracted my homestudy agency, the social worker told me that my homestudy would be complete by the end of August; today is August 26, meaning I technically still should not have a completed application! She completed the homestudy over a month early allowing me to proceed quicker. I also had many problems getting my divorce finalized (causing delay in proceeding with the adoption), but somehow it was finalized much quicker than my attorney or I thought possible. When Hannah called with the referral she told me that my referral was one of the final ten that she would be making for quite a while because of the situation in Guatemala! I was not supposed to be ready for a referral by now, but had I not been, I would have completely missed the opportunity for a referral!

I am so thankful that Gabriella was in His plan for me!