What 6 months home really looks like...

It's cherry icee on your face while you watch your brother's football game and learn to yell "Go Wiley!"

 It's dressing up in the bumble bee costume Mommy intended to keep until Halloween but just couldn't wait once we got the box open!

 It's eating my Easter eggs while the rest of you crazies put paint and stickers on them.  What are you thinking??

 It's getting to wear my pretty new dress the next day!  Plus we got to hunt all over the yard for plastic eggs.  Jarod kept steeling mine...I'm still not happy about that!

It's meeting my mommy for the first time 6 months ago and being really scared.  She tried to be nice to me, but she was a stranger and I started to cry.  Mommy tried walking with me, bouncing me, offering me a snack & a toy, but I just cried anyway.  Finally Daddy came over and I decided to give him a try.  He was pretty good.

 I got to ride on his lap every time we went somewhere on the bus.  This was the morning we had just met and although I did like him better than mommy, I was still not a happy camper.

 Finally we got home and I started to settle in.  This particular day I was getting my way for an entire evening just to get a good picture of my crazy cute self.

It's having a family to walk beside me.  To hold my hand. To tuck me in and lay with me until I fall asleep.  It's arguing over toys, hitting the dog and getting scratched by the cat because I like to hit her too. It's kisses and hugs until I can't hardly stand it!  It's going to the store with mommy during the day all by myself because the big kids are at school and getting chicken, fries and root beer on the way home.  I think I like it here.  It's a good place to be.

The face that changed our world

One year ago tomorrow I was subbing in Mrs. Wilson's music class at our local elementary school.  The morning flew by and before I knew it, it was time for my lunch break.  I checked my cell phone and had several missed calls and texts, several from Steve, which is unusual for a day when he knows I'm working at school.  Several of the missed calls were also from our adoption agency.  The last text from Steve was in all caps and said "WE'RE MATCHED"


Our dossier had been sent to China on August 27th.  We knew there was a new special needs list coming out Sunday night, September 19th, but we didn't expect to be matched yet.  When your dossier goes to China, you have to wait to receive your Log In Date (LID).  As of the Friday before we hadn't been notified that our dossier had been logged in yet, which meant we wouldn't be matched from the September list.


Little did we know, our fabulous agency was working behind the scenes on our behalf.  The agency director had contacted their China staff and asked them to contact the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs...they've changed names now, but then that's what it was) to request our log in date because of the pending list.  They found our we were logged in that day, September 19th, just in time to be matched off the list that came out that night.


I spent my lunch time that day on the phone with Steve and our agency, trying to get as much information as I could in what little time I had.  Steve had received an email at work with a file for us to review.  It included medical information, as well as several pictures.  The first thing he said was, "Oh honey, she's cute!"  And I responded that we weren't supposed to look at the pictures until we had gone through the medical file with a fine tooth comb!  Too late. He looked at the pictures first.  I'm not able to receive email when I sub at school, so I had to wait until the end of the day to rush home and look over all the information.  And that was the first day I ever saw this sweet face...

We met this amazing little girl almost 6 months ago.  She has changed so much - and she has changed us.  She's smart and funny and sassy and independent.  I love every single thing about her.  I'm so blessed to be her mommy.