When I say that God has been orchestrating this whole journey to adoption for years, I am not exaggerating. We're taking it way back to when Beau served his LDS mission in Uruguay (2002-2004). Months into his mission, he was finally feeling comfortable speaking the Spanish language and was watching a world report (the ones shown in between General Conference). In that specific world report, they were talking about the gospel in China and the few members of the church in that country. As he watched, Beau had an overwhelming love for the Chinese people come over him and felt the impression that he needed to learn Mandarin Chinese. As soon as he came home from his mission, he bought CDs to help him start learning.
On one of our first dates we jumped in his truck and a man's voice speaking Chinese came blasting over the speakers. After asking what in the world he was listening to, he told me of his experience. China and Asia in general had never been a culture I was naturally drawn to, but I supposed if he felt like he needed to learn Chinese and we were going to be together, I needed at least learn to appreciate the people and culture.
We only dated for 6 weeks before we were engaged and then were married 6 weeks later (yes, we know we were crazy!). Since we didn't know a ton about each other we bought a book (a type of "get to know you book") to speed things up. One of the questions I distinctly remember was, "If you are unable to have children, are you open to adoption?" I remember telling him of my desire to adopt regardless of whether or not I could have children. It had always been something that I had pressed upon my heart. He agreed that it was something we should have an open mind and heart to. And for a few years, we shelved the topic.
A few years into our marriage, we were living over in Logan and there was a couple in our ward that were blessing their baby. They were of Chinese descent and had invited a lot of Chinese friends to attend the blessing. I remember during the sacrament, looking around at all the visitors in the congregation that day, and felt an overwhelming love for the Chinese people as well. As I sat there, wiping tears, I knew that someday this culture would play a big part in our lives, although at the time, I had no clue how.