Meet Gillian.....

....I would like to introduce you to Gillian. She has been a friend of mine for a very short time, however our friendship has become close very quickly. We share some things in common. We both travel on the journey in Holland with a daughter sporting Designer Genes! Down syndrome is what brought us together... but not all that bonds us. She is the author of Expecting Evangeline which is a blog about their journey of adoption. Not only is Evangeline in the same country as our Jacob, she is also sporting those Designer Genes, better known as Down syndrome.

I remember first reading Gillian's story on a DS board. She has just given birth to her youngest daughter Polina, she and Sergei were living in a country where there were no services available for their new daughter. She found the DS board and came for support. I remember her initial postings and the feelings she was having. She was grieving over the baby she thought she was having. Another thing I remember from that first posting is that Polina was the first child born with DS in that hospital. I have followed her journey with Polina ever since.

I felt a connection with her from the beginning and little did I know what God had in store for our friendship and our families. It was in 2008 when a get-together was planned in Peoria, Illinois that I finally go to meet and bond with this wonderful woman and her family. I got to snuggle Polly and loved every minute of talking with Gillian. While this weekend sparked our fast friendship, we still didn't know that we would travel the adoption path together.

It was several weeks later that we made our decision about adoption and I found out that Gillian and her family had been praying about adoption as well. We have kept in close contact since then. We hope that it may be possible to travel together. But we will see how the next few months play out.

It's a God thing!! I truly believe that way back when -- just after Polina was born, God was trying to tell me that we were meant to be friends. How we would travel along the same paths not only in the world of Down syndrome, but also the world of adoption. God Bless her and her family. She has been my cheer leader through this whole process and we are prayer warriors for each other. I thank God for bringing her into my life.

P.S. Stay tuned for more friends who are traveling these paths!!!