June 20, 2016: Mama and daughter become a family.
Three years ago my friend Nikki Cardoza adopted her daughter Annie in Changsha, China. I got to be a part of that once-in-a-lifetime experience to travel with Nikki and help bring Annie home.
It was a tremendous journey of love that took Nikki back to the country where she’d volunteered for years at orphanages and where she met Annie as a tiny baby at Butterfly Children’s Hospices. The marvelous staff there helped save Annie, and on that trip to China I got to visit Butterfly House and the other orphanage where Annie was cared for.
Now I look at this series of blog posts and photos from that trip, moved by Nikki’s determination and Annie’s strength that allowed her to survive her early years, which has moved them through the challenges and joys of the past three years as mother and daughter.
And I look at the photo of Annie in November 2018, hardly believing that this is the same child who met her mama on a hot summer day in a city far, far away, who bravely made the journey to her new forever home in a place called California.
I am ever richer for that experience and for their friendship and love.
https://janishaag.com/2016/07/08/annie/
Annie, November 2018
Güd wrtr 
A remarkable gift to that child !
Determination…and LOVE, times 100!!!