I can hardly believe it has been 6 months since we went to the orphanage to pick up our little girl, beginning our journey home! Time flies to be sure…but wow! It seems only yesterday. C said…”I can remember the night she came home like it was yesterday.” (I thought it was too cute)

We had a little cake with a candle on it and sang to her tonight after supper…Happy 6 mos you’re home, happy 6 mos you’re home, happy 6 mos A, happy 6 mos you’re home. (one of the boys came up with the wording for us.) She blew out her candle, and then asked…”why its my birthday?” I told her because she had been home with Mommy and Daddy and C and H for 6 mos now, to which she replied…”this MY house”.  It has been interesting the last few days because it seems she has been a little clingy and emotional…I can’t help but wonder if she doesn’t “feel” the mile stones passing…she has commented a little more about this being her house, and her toys, and her brothers, …etc. But then maybe she reads our reactions and emotions and responds to them.

With all that is in the news right now…I can’t help but to know the Lord was working on our timing for our sakes and for hers. Any sooner and she wouldn’t have been the one available to us, any later and we may have run into the closing of adoptions…His timing is soooo perfect…though at times we fight it. Many times I wanted our process to go faster, to move…but in the end He knew what was best for her and us….He could see into the future…and know when the right time was so that we might be matched with this little girl…with our little girl. She couldn’t have been any more perfect for our family! If I could choose…I would choose her over and over again. Everywhere we go people comment on how much she looks like me or the boys, we just laugh and say yes, she does. Truly, we are finding she and our youngest are more alike than the two boys are. They are two peas in a pod.

As the season changes, and it warms up…I’m reminded of last summer…hoping, waiting, praying to hear something. The news came inAug.that there was a referral…though at the time we were unaware that this first one was not our little girl…but I think of her often too, wondering if her mommy followed through and came for her, or is she still in the orphanage.  We saw our little one for the first time, the week before we were to leave for Russia…we were at the time taken aback at her resemblence to our family, and when we met her we fell in love immediately. There are just some things in life that the Lord gives you certain assurances about; marriage to B was one, and A being our daughter was another. I’m thankful He confirmed these things in my heart…He knew I needed it.

I have been following another family who are currently in Russia, and have had their court date already…the judge said yes even amidst all the hoopla going on around. Anyway, she posted pics of the apartment…the one we also stayed in and wow how it hit me emotionally..so many memories and emotions that we experienced while there in that sweet place. It brought me to tears to see it again. It will always hold a special place in my heart.

So…alas…I am done rambling/remeniscing (take your pick on terms). ;o) For me they are sweet times to remember, and writing them here keeps them alive and fresh.

In His Watchcare,

Joy