One year ago.... YES

One year ago tomorrow, Michael’s leg was broken, I had just had surgery about 10 days before, and we were sitting in the orthopedics office waiting to see if Michael could start PT. It had been a long start to the fall. I remember staring into the PT room, praying that he could go in there, and the phone rang from our adoption agency. I hung up, and looked at Michael “Here we go, another 72 hour window”. This was not our first go at it. We had been sent files before of sweet little faces, with 72 hrs to decided if they would make us a family of three. We had been clearly told, that those sweet faces were a no (for more reasons than I have space to mention. The First No, here you can see just how heavy our hearts were.)

We opened the email together, and my heart fluttered. And right away we knew, this sweet little face was our girl. We had 72 hours to write a letter back to the government to say yes. The day we said yes.

She was beaming with joy, In fact her name meant Happy Autumn and we indeed used Joy as her middle name. She was a ray of sunshine, just when the wait was intense and hard. We had battled for almost 25 months to be a family of three.

And one year later, she has been home a little over 7 months and lives up to every bit of her name. She truly is a ray of sunshine in our lives and we are ever so thankful for her. She has changed a lot!!! To say the least. Growing in English everyday, learning new activities, loves going to church, love her family, animals, playing, singing and dancing. She has hit some great milestones that we have had the pleasure of witnessing in these short months that we have been together.

For those who read and are still in the waiting process, we get it. I can’t even begin to tell you how much we get it. There is such a sweet reward at the end of the wait, that will make it seem like it was nothing in the end. We sit here tonight and marvel at what our Heavenly Father entrusted us with and  the lengths HE went to make it happen.

Enjoy the pics,

 Jennifer