Show Off

                        Here we are with the Magnuson clan..Jesse holding their new daughter Glory, Amber holding Emet and Jamin standing in front in the red coat. They would also add Saige to their family a few days later. Yes, that's right they adopted the boys from Ethiopia at the same time and then 2 girls at the same time for China.  (The random Chinese man was from the restuarant we dined in...a common occurence to see in our photos:)

Our story with the Magnuson's goes way back..to when we 1st decided to adopt, we met them at an adoption training seminar at Gateway Woods back in 2008. You can read more about this remarkable story in my previous posts. But, I couldn't tell the story better and give God more credit than Amber did on her blog..so these are her words, from their blog..www.magnews1.wordpress.com.

SHOW OFF
You can't tell me that my God is not a show off. He is. And He's the only One with any right to be. I mean, really, what other reason could there be to cause two families that met each other in 2008 as both were pursuing the adoption of their sons from Ethiopia, then having them travel together to meet their sons, two of which were from the same region, then 3 years later to discover that they are both adopting, (again) from China? Oh but, it gets better-the girls that both families are adopting are not only from the same province, but, from the same orphanage..(remembering that this area does very few adoptions, and the families are with different adoption agencies!) And just for kicks both families paperwork is ready at the same time and they get to travel together, again, to pick up their daughters. A praise-worthy show off is My God!
-Amber Magnuson

A little more backdrop to the story. The weeks before it was looking like we weren't going to be able to travel together, things just weren't coming together. Shari, (who was in our travel group) and I had been exchanging emails in the weeks prior to travel. In one of those emails she asked me if by chance we were the Matt and Elizabeth that were referenced in Amber's blog. Shari had just came across Amber's blog on a yahoo group. What are the chances?
Right before we left it really didn't look like things would work out for us to meet up. Shari emailed me and said, "Sorry it doesn't look like we will get to meet the Magnuson's." I told Shari, that while it looked impossible, in fact, at that late time it WAS kind of impossible, that I would be really surprised if God didn't pull it off. Well. It worked, since we were in Beijing the Magnuson's had an important piece their paperwork delivered to us at our hotel and we took it along to Gansu. His timing was perfect!

I love this story!!!