If you're family or a close friend you know I just posted this on "Our Flight Plan to Audrey" site, but I wanted to include on my new blog in case you're new to our journey.
Mommy and Daddy cannot believe one year ago today at 4pm we stepped off an elevator to meet YOU for the very first time! I cannot begin to tell you how my heart skipped a beat when I first saw you. I gasped and told your daddy, "Look! There she is! She's got the yellow duck we sent her! (and "turn on the video camera!"). Jenny, our guide and translator, didn't spot you at first, but guess who did...ME! It was very crowded with other new adoptive families meeting their children for the first time. I saw the most beautiful little girl with an overwhelmed expression on her face grasping tightly to a young lady's hand. You were wearing a pretty white dress, bright green sandals, and holding the yellow duck we had sent you. I didn't even speak to the ladies who brought you to us- I was so anxious to meet you and hold you for the first time!
This first year with you has been more than amazing! God has answered our prayers for you above and beyond our expectations. We feel like you have been a part of our family for many, many years- not just one! You are an absolute joy and delight to have in our family, and I'm so thrilled to call you my daughter. You are kind, happy, resilient, funny, and gentle yet have a mind of your own!. You are a "miss smiley face" if I've ever seen one! One year ago we met a very shy and scared little girl, and now you are a bundle of energy and so full of life! I cannot explain the emotion that is evoked within me when I see you and Abigail- my two precious daughters born to me in two very different and miraculous ways!
I look back over the many years your daddy and I prayed about expanding our family- the "no's, the "yes's", the "not right now's", the pain, the endurance, and all the twists and turns- I'm thankful for each and every one of them because all of those answers from a sovereign God brought us to YOU! Isaiah 55:8 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." I'm quite certain you'll have lots of questions as you grow older about your life in China. Your daddy and I promise to do everything we can to help you find those answers. I think we're off to a really great start already as we talk about your birth parents, foster family and the things we do know about your life in China before we were all brought together as a family of four. I originally titled this post "One Year Celebration", but I changed it. After a lot of thinking and praying about how to memorialize this special date each year for our family I'm still in a quandry to be quite honest. It IS a celebration for your mommy, daddy and sister because God allowed a very precious gift of you to become part of our family. I wonder if you'll see at as a celebration when you are old enough to have processed in your mind what July 12, 2009 means to you. Since you were 4.5 years old you may truly remember the day these new people came into your life- ripping you away from everything you had ever known and telling you that we were your new mama, baba and jie jie. We completely acknowledge that this may be a sad day for you, but I pray if it is that that it will become a very sweet day for you realizing that God created you and has a unique plan for your life.
Audrey An Xiaoli, I pray with all my heart that you will come to know the Lord at an early age so you can live a very full and rich life directed by the One who created you. I know being a christian doesn't make life easy. In fact, sometimes it just makes it harder because as you grow in your faith, you'll realize they're is such a drastic contrast in God's ways and in man's ways. Proverbs 3:5-6 says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In ALL your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."
Love,
Mommy
We bought you this doll from your province.
We ate a traditional chinese meal and then went out for ice cream!
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