One More Piece: Longer in our Family than in China...

Yesterday - December 29th - marked the 18 month anniversary of Emily's "gotcha" day.   We met her in a hotel lobby on June 29, 2014. She was almost 18 months old.
Now, she is almost 3 years old.

As of today, she has lived one more day as a part of our family than she ever lived in China. She has been our daughter/sister/granddaughter/cousin, etc... longer than she ever was an orphan.

Our lives before she joined our family seem so distant now. It's becoming more difficult to remember how our lives were before there was a little white-haired silly girl in our lives. She wakes up and runs for her brothers' rooms, she continues to crack us up with her jokes and antics at meals, she loves/loves/loves her school (and especially her teacher and her friends), she tells us stories, she cuddles her stuffed animals, she loves to do artwork, she wants to learn and to absorb everything, and she is fearless and confident.

We had no idea really what to expect of adoption or of Emily specifically. She has been and is everything we could have ever hoped for - and more. We've had an unusually good experience and she has transitioned so easily and happily into our lives and has accepted and loved us in a way we didn't really think was possible. We are so grateful for her and for how well she has done and for the opportunity we have to have her as part of our family.

Emily has grown up so much during the past 18 months.   She is almost 8 pounds heavier and is almost 8 inches taller. Her hair grew so long that we finally had to cut it last week (a far cry from the shaved 'do she had when we met her). In so many ways, she is such a big, mature girl now. There is hardly a day that passes that someone - teacher, parent, church member, store clerk, etc... doesn't tell me how lovely she is.

She is a treasure (with some comic relief on the side) that we could have missed if we didn't finally step out in faith toward adoption. She has changed all of our lives for the better.   If our last 18 months has taught us anything, it is that this great risk (adoption, big life change, a leap into the unknown) has brought us the greatest possible reward.

A look at now and then...