Gotcha 1 year ago Baby!!

As I type this post, tears of so many feelings are flowing right now. What an UNBELIEVABLE journey it has been to our precious C and I am totally blown away that 1 year ago today, our amazing miracle baby was placed in our arms FOREVER!!!!!! I look at her sweet sleeping face and think 'why Lord...why did you choose us...why did you entrust her with us...we did not deserve her...we did not deserve all the beautiful favor you showed to us in moving the mountains to bring her home'. We are so overwhelmed by the gift of her and are so excited to be celebrating one year with her home.

Just for some fun reading, I posted part of our journal from that amazing day.

(Stacy) It's 5am in the morning and I can't sleep :) I was so tired last night; I thought I'd for sure sleep well. We are 4 hours away from meeting our precious daughter that we've waited so long for. That just totally blows my mind. I am very nervous, excited, and tearful (with joy) about what is about to transpire. Today will be a very long day of paperwork etc. but I believe we will be allowed a short quiet time back at our hotel room sometime today. I promise we will post pics. asap!!! Daddy keep your phone near by, we will be text messaging you once we have her and hopefully sending a picture via Paul's phone...I'm thinking sometime around 9:30/10. (6:30/7pm your time) THE TIME HAS FINALLY COME...our baby is miles away from us...oh, sweet C your mommy and daddy finally here!!!!!

(Paul) We have her! Everything went well, C is healthy and happy. We'll post more later. A lot more paperwork to do.

(Stacy) What an unbelievably amazing day!!! We left our hotel at 8:30am and headed to the Civil Affairs office...this is where we were to receive C . As we approached the gate we could hear a baby crying but had no idea if it was C . We saw two babies and we couldn't tell if either were C . Then another nanny was holding a crying baby and our guide was talking very fast to everyone in the room and then she kept say Pan Dan Feng and started tape recording this crying baby. The second we realized what was going on, I lost it...there was our precious baby. They immediately handed her to me and she cried for about a minute and then rested her head on my shoulder and was quiet. The nannies were so excited to see her rest quietly on my shoulder…they kept saying 'mama' (we found out later from our friends that C had been screaming non-stop from the moment she walked through the door). We spent about 10minutes holding her and then we had to move to another room to begin the paperwork. We were so, so excited to see that our friends (Lisa & Adam) were in the same room. At this point C was still doing well but was very, very nervous. She was holding a package of crackers and wouldn't even let us touch them. If I moved at all, she'd jump and fuss a bit. Paul started to fill out some of the paperwork while I tried to open her crackers. She would nervously fidget with the crackers, spinning them round and round in her hands. C ultimately started to eat them which helped a bit. I then gave her some little keys and handed her off to daddy…she’s a daddy’s girl. She did the same nervous fidget with the toy keys but wasn’t crying. Again, if we moved her at all she’d cry a bit. Ultimately daddy got her to sleep and that helped her relax a lot. She was not showing too much emotion but sat very quietly observing everything that was happening around her.

After about 1.5 hours at the Civil Affairs office we headed off to do more paperwork and ended up at our hotel for about a 2 hour break. The second we walked through our hotel door, our little shy peanut began to smile and giggle and play. She was a totally different child. We had such a precious time playing with her and helping her become somewhat comfortable with us. She LOVED calling the family via webcams and absolutely LOVES Paul’s computer. We have discovered that this quiet little girl is not so quiet, nor shy. She is EXTREMELY busy. I’m positive she has 20 arms. She is unbelievable fast at grabbing things and is very, very smart. She must know how things work. She is super curious about everything. She had her first bath and at first look cried as if to tell us ‘there is no way I’m getting in there’. So, I rolled up my shorts, climbed in the bath tub and stood her in it. She wouldn’t let me sit her down so we gave her a cup and showed her how to dump the water out. Because she is so curious, she grabbed the bowl out of my hands and bent over to get water and do the same thing I did. Needless to say, she ended up sitting in the tub and realized it wasn’t so bad after all.

We ate some lunch and headed of to do more paperwork. Woohoo…there were 3 other families that we’ve connected with through our province yahoo group there, too. So, we had a wonderful time with them. Their babies are so, so precious. We are so blessed to have them during this trip. It truly helps to have other families that understand what each other is going through. C has had 2 sad times today. Not so much a ton of crying but she’ll be playing and stop and get a sad look and cry a little bit. She is allowing both of us to comfort her and will reach for both of us. HUGE, HUGE blessing!!! C seems to like us….we’ll see in the morning when she realizes we are still here J We are still in awe of this little miracle sleeping in the crib right next to our bed. She’s here, she’s really here! Thank you Lord for this amazing privilege…for this precious, precious gift! We stand in complete awe of all that you have done for our family!!

Here is our 'gotcha video' and some pictures from that BEAUTIFUL day. (pause site music)

"Created for a place I've never known...
This is home, now I'm finally where I belong"

I have not listened to this song in a while and I was caught off guard by how emotional it made me. It brought back all the emotions of the wait, the trial, and the precious day she was finally placed in our arms. HOME TO STAY...YOU'LL NEVER BE ALONE!!