This year’s Winter Song playlist concludes with music that carried one woman though a difficult season that would change her life.
The song is “Dying Day” by Brandi Carlile, and the story comes from Joanna Woodbury of Wauwatosa, Wis. It begins in an Ethiopian orphanage, as she and her husband meet the baby they hope will become their daughter.
“It was awesome, and probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done, all in one,” Woodbury says. At the time, the little girl the couple was applying to adopt was just 5 1/2 months old. “We got to be with her for about 45 minutes. I held her for 20, and then she fell asleep. We had to put her down and leave the room, and then take a 4 1/2-hour bus ride back to Addis Ababa, go into Ethiopian court and say, ‘Yes, we want to parent this child.’ ”
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