One Year Ago...

I was home, enjoying a day off.  I had lunch with a good friend and enjoyed catching her up on our adoption story...telling her that we could be matched with our child at any time.  I remember the feeling of being cautiously excited that we could be in the next round of match calls.  So excited that it could finally be us but cautiously guarding my heart from disappointment.

And then at 2pm in the afternoon, the call came...it was our social worker calling to tell us that we had been matched with a 13 month old baby girl in Shanghai.  I remember saying "a girl??!!!" because we had been preparing for a baby boy all along.  I was so excited!!  I would have been elated with a boy or girl but what Mama doesn't want a daughter?!!!  Our social worker told me just a little info and then asked if I wanted her to email us her packet.  "Yes, send it!!  She sounds perfect!"  I immediately called Matt and told him to get right home, we had some important pictures and information to look at.  I remember thinking he was taking forever to get home.  It was all I could do to wait for him.  When he finally got home we hugged for a long time, crying...we were about to see our daughter for the first time.   Once we opened the email, we couldn't believe our eyes...she was beautiful and absolutely perfect.  We read over her info so many times and just stared at her picture.  She was real and she was going to be ours.

After the news set in a little we started making phone calls to family and close friends.  It was so fun to call with such great news, finally.  Everyone was so excited but calling my mom to tell her the news had to be one of the best phone calls I ever made.  She was at work and when I told her she was going to be a grandma she started running around her office, yelling "I'm going to be a grandma!!"  

What a year it has been...a year with so many blessings.  I can't believe how life has changed in the last year...we waited the 6 months before we could travel to meet Ava and used the time to finish up paperwork and prepare, we spent almost 3 weeks in China meeting our beautiful baby girl for the first time and getting to know each other, since we've been home there have been so many first experiences for our family and we are loving every moment and taking advantage of every minute together.   And now we are waiting to start our dossier to grow our family by another baby. Who would have thought a year could change us so much.   We are so thankful for all that Jesus has blessed us with and pray He continues to guide our family as we continue to grow and learn.

Ava Tian we love you so much and our love continues to grow every day.  Thank you for bringing us so much joy.  We can't imagine life without your smile and laugh.  We can't imagine life without all you have taught us.  We can't imagine life without watching Madagascar 5,000 times.  We can't imagine life without dancing in the evening.  We can't imagine life without your hugs and kisses.  We can't imagine life without you running around our house.  We can't imagine life without you pulling out all your books and movies.  We love you so much for giving us a chance to love you and be your Mama and Baba.