One Year Ago Today in China...

    We have the music blasting, the kids are dancing up a storm in the living room and pink streamers are hanging crazily all over....because it is Georgia's Gotcha Day!!!!!

   There is so much to say but I don't want to miss even a minute of this day with this daughter of mine

  Here's the entry from one year ago. Praise God for all He has done in my baby girl's life!!!!!

“The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing” Zephaniah 3:17

Today is a day that is hard to even capture in with words. The only place that I think to begin is that Georgia is snoring in the bed after falling asleep in my arms…I am SO incredibly humbled that this sweet little girl is my daughter. She is tender beyond words, cried for only a second when I first held her and did not let go of me and was completely snuggled up in my arms until she was deep asleep and I laid her down.

The day was so perfect and I am in awe of God and how He took care of every last little detail. Again, How do I put it into words? She has been taken care of by the same nannie for the whole almost two years that she has been at the orphanage. The nannie was there and the bond that they had was so obvious and so tender. I have a feeling she may have been carried everything by this wonderful woman all day long. Not only that, it was so clear that the Director also cared greatly for her. The whole Gotcha time was marked with tenderness…

The day started in Beijing where we got up early, had our first Chinese breakfast and the grandmas got the feel of being the only foreigners at the hotel…then we quickly packed, hopped in the van with Maggie our guide and did some drive-by tourism. Literally, we drove by the Forbidden city & Tiananmen Square and then drove to the Olympic Stadiums where we had about 15 minutes to see the Bird’s Nest and Watercube and then we rushed to the airport.

Once we landed we did 2 days worth of official appointments in 3 hours…it was crazy! In the 15 minutes from the airport to the notary we assembled presents for the officials, made up a bottle and packed a bag of things for Georgia all while also double checking the official paperwork for the adoption! Whew!

We made our first stop at the notary and then hopped in the van to go and get Georgia. The whole “Gotcha” experience was amazing. We were the only family there and the orphanage officials spent over an hour just with us. They let me get to know Georgia for a bit before rushing in to things which I think helped a ton with the transition. I have to say that I am so amazed by Yulin 1st (where Georgia was). They gave us a photo album of pictures of Georgia, all of the care package things that we sent (but had obviously let Georgia use and play with–which was great) and get this…they handed me a big black bag that was the thing Georgia was found in. I just opened it a few minutes ago and am once again in awe. In it is a beautiful homemade quilt and about four layers of clothes, along with a hat that her birth-mom must have hand-sewn a string into, so that it would not fall off of Georgia’s head. This may not seem like much to some but for a mama, it means the world. I can without a doubt tell Georgia that she was loved from the very beginning.

She is so amazing, incredibly bright eyed and trusting yet also seems to be taking the whole process in at her own speed. Those of you who prayed with us for supernatural noding and that she would feel loved and safe, that has been answered tenfold. She buries her head against my chest, wraps her arms around my waist and pats my back! She over and over looked up and just stared into my eyes like she is trying to learn me by heart…I cannot believe that I get to be this girl’s mama!

I also cannot believe that looking back now I can see the Lord’s hand in EVERY detail, He has not forgotten a thing and His timing has been perfect…it is beyond my comprehension that a God so big has made a journey so long and difficult so breathtakingly beautiful.