Christmas Came Early!!!

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!!!