I thought you would like to read this very touching letter from the family that wanted to adopt Susan:

Susan was such a special little girl. We didn't set out to add another child to our family; we set out on a journey to adopt Susan. We were captivated by her story, her spirit, and the amazing numbers of prayers that had been lifted up to our Heavenly Father on her behalf, almost from the beginning of her brief life. We were so excited to love her, hug her, and watch her grow up in our family. Losing her left a hole in our family that had formerly felt intact.

After many prayers and soul-searching, we felt that God opened the doors to our hearts for a reason. And we did not want Susan's legacy in our life to be merely loss and grief. We were getting ready to contact our adoption agency about reactivating our paperwork to pursue the adoption of another baby girl in China...we thought the best approach might be to go along the non-special needs route, as we did with Aimee. But in the time between our decision and my email to the adoption agency, a friend, a fellow adoptive mom who knows our story, emailed us with information about a little girl in China who needed a family....a little girl with congenital heart disease, close in age to Susan (born and abandoned 8/4/05), and living in an orphanage in the Anhui Province where Lily lived for the first 8 years of her life.

Aidi Xi is described as shy and quiet with a ready smile...she was referred to another family 4 months ago, but before the adoption was completed the adoptive mom became pregnant and the adoption process was halted. The adoption agency has been scrambling around trying to find a new family....

So once again, we found ourselves praying fervently, trying to discern God's will for us and this little girl....and both of us felt almost at once that the fit seemed perfect and that we needed to bring little Aidi home as soon as possible. What better tribute to Susan, the little girl we loved and lost, than to adopt another little heart baby...and how wonderful for Lily, who also had congenital heart disease, to have a little sister from her same province...and how cool for Aimee to have a little sister with a birthday on her own "gotcha day", August 4....and lastly, all Aidi's medical information was obtained last Feb 14, the day that Susan had her open heart surgery in China....could be mere coincidence, but we choose to think that all these things are God's little signs to show us that she is ours....

We are attaching a photo of Aidi Xi...we think she is beautiful. All the kids are excited about the different ways they will be able to love this little sister...we are thankful for their hearts that are so open to love another sibling...

We are thinking of naming our new little one Mandi Hope Aidi Straka.....Mandi, because the meaning is "beloved or chosen of God" and this also links us to Susan's foster mother, Amanda, and Hope because that is what she represents for us and we for her....

With love and joy and awe at God's blessings,
Andy and Bonnie