Have you ever wished soooo much for something that you wish you could have or
redo? Last week as we set our clocks back one hour for daylight savings time I
asked my friends if you could re-live one hour in your entire life what would it
be? The answers all varied and they were all very sentimental.
I knew in my heart if I could re-live one hour out of my entire life it would be the
hour that Gabriella was placed in our arms. One reason is that it all happened so
fast and I wish I could have taken in each and every moment.
The second reason is because we only have one very blurry picture of the
moment she was placed in our arms.
Last week I was going through all of her paper work and I found something
tucked in one of her files. It was a miniature c.d. It said Sun Wen Hao, her
Chinese name. I truly didn't have a clue what was on this little c.d., if we
even had anything to open it, play it etc. Curtis put it in the computer to see
what would happen.
When it opened this is what we saw....
a clear picture of the moment she was placed in our arms!!! I cried!! I couldn't
believe we had a real picture of the moment our baby girl was handed to us!!!!!
And then...there were more! More pictures that our guide took and tucked in our
file that some how we never ran across until last week!!!
Back at the Civil Affairs office after our first night together:)
We're preparing to sign the official paper work to make Sun Wen Hao,
Gabriella Grace Hao.
It must be ok with Gabriella as she has already started her paper-work:)
Curtis preparing to officially be a daddy...to his little girl!
Preparing to make it all official...
I have completed hundreds of foot prints for babies when they are born...this is
my favorite hand print I have ever done!!
Gabriella officially has her family...and we couldn't be happier or feel more
blessed!!
Outside the orphanage steps. Gabriella was in foster care but this was
the orphanage she was initially taken to in Taiyuan.
One of the children celebrated a birthday while we were there...she wasn't quite
in the party mood that afternoon...but it was her very first birthday party that we
attended together:)
This was Susan our guide...words can't even describe how wonderful this woman
was! Gabriella had a lot of grieving for a few days as she had very loving
foster grandparents whom she had lived with since two weeks of age. Susan was
incredible!!!
This was priceless...there are times its convenient to have a mom as a
nurse...there are times that it isn't. Once our little princess was fast asleep we
had to check her over from head to toe. I was totally convinced she had
surgery on her belly button as it looked like tiny sutures or maybe scars...well I
learned that this was simply how Asian belly buttons may look as they have a lot
more melanin in their skin...lesson learned:)
The red couch photo.
The rose garden:)
We had really wondered how the food might be in China...we were very pleasantly
surprised, especially Curtis. I will try almost anything...he is more of a meat and
potatoes guy. The food was some of the most fresh
food we have ever had. It was delicious...and the fruit...was amazing!!!!
We were starting to see smiles of our precious baby girl!
We were blessed to meet and travel with some wonderful families from all over
the US. It's amazing how God's hand was in each adoption as every child seemed
to be the perfect fit for every single family! I can truly say Christmas came early
this year as I can't even begin to put into words how special it is to have a
picture of the very moment our baby girl was placed in our arms...half way around
the world!!!
