Can I Ask An Editor For A Referral?

I think I may have waited way too long to actually do something about my problem. I'll try to make it short and concise but this is something that started way back at the beginning of this year.

One of my children's picture book stories won 5th place in Writer's Digest Writing Competition in 2004. I took said manuscript and submitted it to various publishers in February thinking the 5th place honor would help me sell it.

Form rejection upon form rejection appeared in the mailbox until I got a little ray of hope: A form rejection with a hand-written note on it. The note was from an editor and she said it was a well written and fresh, original story but not "exactly" what they were looking for and she asked if I had any more stories to share? She also enclosed her business card. Also, I must note that the turnaround time for this was only a week!!

I have many stories waiting to be sold and so I picked out another story I thought would work for her publishing company and sent that out a couple of days later, still in February. I never heard another thing from her.

In June I sent her a letter with a SASP and asked her if she'd received the second story and wondered how far along it had gotten in the que of stories being considered.

She quickly sent the postcard back (within approximately 2 weeks) and said she'd gotten snowed under and they'd gotten backlogged and she probably wouldn't know anything about my second story until after fall started.

Meanwhile I'm wondering why on earth I didn't ask her in February that if my first story wasn't exactly right for her if she could refer me to an editor that might be looking for that type of story.

Is it too late now to ask her for a referral for my 1st story? It has been approximately 9 months she probably wouldn't even remember the 1st story? I don't want to rock the boat and have my 2nd story discarded because I'm a pest but...

I don't want to lose out on a great opportunity either.

Should I just continue to wait for another month or so and hope she contacts me about my 2nd story? Then proceed from there depending upon the final outcome of the 2nd story submission?

I never would've dreamed of asking an editor for a referral but I just joined a local writing group and a thrice published thrillers author spoke last month and said that was how he sold his first novel. An editor sent him a personal rejection and he decided to get his nerve up and ask her for a referral to another editor and she gave him one and that editor published his book and he was on his way. However, I don't think he waited 9 months before he asked. I would've asked her a lot sooner if I'd known writer's could do that and it would work.

I just wanted to toss this out and see what everyone else thought.