2nd Anniversary of Gotcha Day

Here's a great comparison of 2006, 2007 and 2008





I reminisced alot today as a recounted this day 2 years ago when we first met our little girl! I took Gracie for a long bike ride today and told her the story as we rode. After she took a short nap in the trailer, she asked that I keep telling her the story. (It's amazing the things she remembers from our stories! Now, not only does she say she was born in China and that she cried alot in China, she talks about how her ears hurt when she was on the plane!) As I told the story, my voice would crackle a bit and tears would stream down my face remembering this incredible day. (I wonder what the oncoming bikes and cars must have thought!).

The day in Nanchang, CHina started after a restless night of sleep. There was so much anticipation in our spirits! Eleven o'clock seemed like a long time to wait to walk across the street to the government building! Finally the time came and our group (7 families) walked across the very busy street, took the elevator up a few floors and walked into a room of mass chaos! We expected to be seated in a conference type room and be called one by one to go up and receive our child. But no, there were people everywhere and lot of screaming babies- it was like an oven in the room. Another group was in there also receiving their children and so we wandered around, getting our cameras ready, looking for our girls. We thought for sure that we saw Gracie across the room and began to get pictures and watch her closely. Soon, she was being placed in her families arms- oops wrong girl! Then finally someone heard our name amidst the loud chaos and here they came with Gracie and placed her in my arms. She was screaming and was ticked! But, we were all bawling and couldn't believe this incredible moment! It took hours for her to settle down- we had lots of waiting that day and just tried to soothe her and try to get her cooled down. She was so sweaty from screaming. She slowly warmed up to us and we became a family of 5 overnight!

I could go on and on, but if you want to recount the story, go to our China blog- http://www.journeystochina.net

It was an amazing day, to see the beginning of a transformed little girl- from scared and mad and shy and timid (so they had told us), to an outgoing, social, gregarious little girl! God has been so good to our family- we can't thank Him enough for using us to bring life and hope to a little Chinese orphan girl.