Happy birthday and happy gotcha day to our sweet girl...

Happy Birthday, A'!
A' feeding the chickens.

"Gotcha day!"...Miss A' along w/mom, baba, her orphanage director and official.

One year ago today, we were on an airplane from Shanghai to Changsha, Hunan province. We didn't know what to expect. We were scared that sweet A wouldn't accept us and that she would be afraid of us. Would she bond with us? We weren't sure what her physical limitations would be either, due to her diagnosis in China. I don't think that anything can prepare you for meeting your child for the first time.....biological, or adopted (and I've done both :).
When we arrived in her province, we were greeted in the hotel lobby by another family

who anxiously awaited meeting there darling son, too. We piled into a cramped van and ventured through the extremely congested city. Traffic was TERRIBLE. Horns honked, cars merged into one another, but our driver confidently swerved in and out of oncoming cars, buses, and bicycles. The smoggy air made our lungs burn. There was construction everywhere, and workers forged out ditches next to the roads with shovels and pick axes. We chatted back and forth with the Geddes Family (HI, btw if you are reading this.....email me!) but, we you could tell that we were equally as nervous to meet our newest members of the family.

As we drove into the parking lot of the civil affairs office, I was overcome with fear again. I kept repeating Psalm 23 in my head to calm myself. I silently said a prayer before we walked into the building, and then off we went. We were led into a large room with several babies waiting.....plump little babies. Our guide quickly led the Geddes family over to meet their beautiful son for the first time. She then walked toward us and said, "your baby isn't here." I said, "yes, that is her!" She replied, "no....that baby is much to small and skinny to be your baby." My heart sank. I thought the same thing, but couldn't bring myself to say it out loud. She kept shaking her head and saying "no...not your baby," and whisked out of the room to find an official. I knew. J' knew. She was ours, and it didn't matter to us if she was "too skinny" in the eyes of the guide. She was our beautiful daughter that we had prayed for for over 15 months.

We both walked slowly over to the two men that were caring for her. I uttered her Chinese name to them, and one stood up and nodded his head and smiled. He offered her to me, and I swept her up and held her tightly. He rubbed her back and welled up with tears. He kept repeating something to her over and over. Our guide returned to the room with a forlorn look on her face and said, "yes, this is your baby." She seemed almost disappointed that her countries daughter was in the condition that she was. She was not able to walk, crawl, hold a cup, talk, utter sound, etc., but it didn't matter to us. She was ours, and we were hers. She and the two men exchanged words, and then we were able to have a quite moment alone with our sweet girl.

The other babies in the room cried....whaled really, but A' was silent. She stared into the distance.....not wishing to make eye contact. I offered her a bottle, but she didn't know what to do with it. My first instinct was to stuff her full of food. I had never seen a three year old so skinny. I could feel her spine thru her shirt, and her legs and arms were skin and bones.

We went back to our hotel room, and slowly she began to look at us. We propped her up on our bed and tried to play with her, but she had spent so much time deprived of toys that she didn't even know what to do with them. We found a musical toy, and that seemed to do the trick.

As we walked around the hotel, we were greeted by many families holding their chubby little cherubs. We would get looks of sympathy from them b/c our daughter didn't look, or act like their children.

The past year has been filled with ups and downs. We've had tears of joy, and tears of sadness. We've all been pushed beyond what we thought we could handle. Miss A' has been one courageous little lady and even though it hasn't been easy, she has grown so much. She has grown to trust us and accept us, even with all of our parental imperfections. The truth is that God knew that we needed A' just as much as A' needed us. We have been incredibly blessed this past year. So, happy 4th birthday (June 20) and happy Gotcha day (June 23). You are amazing, and we continually thank the Lord for you each and every day. -Love momma