One Year Since Referral

Dear Vivi -

One year ago today, we got a phone call that changed our lives, and saw this picture for the first time:

It was such an amazing thing for Daddy and I to sit down and open up the email together.  We had an immediate reaction to you, and I think we knew right away, although we didn't formally admit it to each other or CCAI until four days later, that you were our daughter.  But what we didn't know was just how far we could fall in love with you in such a short period of time. This is that same sweet face today:

Over the course of the last year, you have drastically altered our lives in such profound and irreversible ways.  We now know:

• what it's like to have a little girl in the house to balance out our boys adding dresses and pigtails to our polo shirts and buzzcuts.
• that girls yell just as loud as boys, if not louder.
• what it feels like to have a daughter.
• what it means to welcome a child who is "not flesh of our flesh, nor bone of our bone, but still miraculously our own."
• that having three children is a whole new level of crazy.
• what it feels like to struggle to bring a child home.
• that you were undoubtedly prepared for us just as we were preparing for you.
• that your smile is priceless.
• that we can love a child that we did not bear as much as those we did.
• that you are just the most smiley, squishy, sassy, sunshiney, scrumptious, and sweet little girl in the world, and absolutely the perfect addition to our family. There is no way this could have happened without God working through every step.

We have a long road ahead of us.  We know that there are some challenges ahead of us physically, and we are still getting to know you emotionally, bonding with you.  But we have no doubt that we can deal with it all together head on and it will all work out for the good.

We knew it from the first time we saw that precious face, and we know it just as much now that you are home.

Love,
Mommy & Daddy