Happy Family Day, Baby Girl!

Three years ago today, at this moment in time,  our family was nervously awaiting the arrival of our Potato.  Butterfly and one set of grandparents had made the trip to this city with us that we now call Home.  My heart was in my throat and it pounded mercilessly while we stood in the sterile, stuffy Civil Affairs Office.  There was no clue that in that place families were made everyday.
 
"She's already here"...I'll never forget the guide telling me that...my eyes welled up with tears as her siblings began to cheer.  My mom gave me a look to remind me that though I had seen her pictures for months...this would be the first time that she would see the face of her Momma, and my tears might frighten her.  Daddy gave me a reassuring look his eyes wet with the emotion of the scene.
 
We'd dreamed about her, prayed for her and tried to imagine what her personality might be like. 
 
Then we heard the sound of one squeaky shoe approaching.  As she stood in the doorway, time stood still as she stared at this strange group of foreigners all smiling at her.  She had been dressed by her foster mother in a light green, embroidered chiffon dress.  She was clutching the stuffed giraffe we had sent to her some months before while we waited for the paperwork to process.  Her tiny presence commanded the room as she tentatively stepped in.
 
Brownie, then just a few days shy of her second birthday, offered her some cheerios from a bag.  After tasting one, Potato took the bag into her own hands and began to hand them out to her siblings gathered around.  It was our first glimpse at her power-packed personality...
 
She cried intermittently and asked for her Grandma and Grandpa (her foster parents who had devoted themselves to her from the time she was one month old when the orphanage asked them to care for her; until that very day that they'd kissed her good-bye, put her on a bus with the orphanage worker and released her at two years, four months old.)
 
Tomorrow we will celebrate this special day by welcoming to our home Potato's foster parents.  We will enjoy a cake and conversation, Potato is so excited to use her newly acquired Chinese to impress them.  Also joining our celebration will be Bub's foster mother who is traveling from his birth city some 5 hours away.  She has not held our darling boy in nearly two years since he walked out of her life and into ours.
 
Three families, united in love for these two precious children.  Our family, the most blessed having the future with Potato and Bub.  Their families, the most generous, having given themselves fully to the love and care of these babies who they ultimately released so that they might have forever families.  All of us together, joining in a celebration of family, in this, our children's birth country...it is divinely orchestrated, of this we are sure.
 
I'm posting a couple of pictures of Potato, three years ago...I can hardly stand to look at them and the profound pain I see in her eyes...
 
Then a few pictures of her from the last few days.  Our vivacious, intelligent little firecracker's face reveals how she's doing today.  She is a mighty force of joy in our lives...her love of life and her family is noticed by everyone who comes into her path.
 
Happy Family Day, Baby Girl!  Your family loves you...immeasurably!
 

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