Gotcha!!!

Today, our family celebrated the two year anniversary of Lily being home with us. What a wonderful day of reflecting on the joyous home coming of our daughter. We waited so long to bring her home. During the time of waiting, our faith was tested in more ways than I ever thought possible. I begged the Lord to hear my prayers in a way that I had never done before. I asked questions that I had never asked of the Lord and His plan for our lives. Here is this little girl, without a family, we love her, and will take care of her....what more do you want from us? Bring her home. Yet, it wasn't our timing, it was His. I will forever look back on that time of waiting and know that we were in His grip in a way that we will cherish forever. We had no control over this situation. We waited on Him. We prayed. We waited. We prayed. We waited. The Lord taught us that there is a mountain top experience after you spend time in the valley. God has been so amazing to our family. We are so very thankful to Him.

So, we spent the day talking about "remember two years ago".....remember saying sad goodbyes to Guatemala, remember waiting in the plane on the runway with a hot, tired, scared little girl in my arms (we had only had her with us for 5 days at that point...she was missing her wonderful foster mother and all of the comforts of the only home she had ever known), remember touching down on U.S. soil, being so thankful that my daughter is now an American, remember sitting in the airport in Texas with delay after delay due to engine problems knowing that our kids were waiting for us to arrive in the airport with their sister. Remember the crowd of family and friends waiting for us in the terminal to welcome us home. Remember eating cake at the airport at midnight to celebrate as all of our loved ones got their first glimpse of our new beautiful daughter. Remember the ride home...thinking wow...four kids....can we do this??

I continue to be overtaken by the joy that adoption brings. What a gift we were given, two years ago. What a gift today to be mommy to this beautiful little girl.

I also cannot help but think about families that started this process when we started and still have not brought their children home. My heart aches for these families. I cannot imagine missing out on the past two years of my daughter's life. My thoughts and prayers are with these families tonight as they wait to bring their little ones home.

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We were so thankful to be home.

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Here are our wonderful family and friends waiting to welcome us home!

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Tonight, the four kids together enjoying our "Gotcha day" celebration that included watching a princess movie that we gave to Lily today. Also, rice crispy treats and peanut butter balls were part of the little party!