Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Today is a bittersweet day for us... It's the day our baby girl turns 1, without us. I remember when Jax turned 1 year old. I spent weeks planning his party, picking out the cake that we'd let him destroy, scheduling pictures of him enjoying a giant cupcake with a 1 on it... it was a big deal for me, a milestone I guess. So, needless to say, it's a little sad that Jade is turning 1 year old on the other side of the world, and reality is, a piece of our heart is on the other side of the world with her. We celebrated by going out for Thai food with Jax and our parents last Friday, before J and I left for our mommy/daddy vacation. Today, we are thinking about her constantly and praying for her often, and anxiously anticipating the day that we get to bring her home. I am thankful that we are in a beautiful, warm, sunny place today, being pampered. It definitely helps me not to dwell on the sadness, but helps me to focus on the future... A future that holds many more birthdays with our beautiful baby girl when we will be together, able to shower her with our love and a make a huge mess in the kitchen baking cupcakes together. :-)

Dear Baby Jade,

As Mommy & Daddy watched the sun rise on your birthday in Mexico, the sun was setting on your birthday in Thailand. You're 1 year old! Although we've not met you yet, we know you're amazing, and we're so thankful that God chose us to be your parents. The view I have today is breathtaking, but I can honestly say that if I were given the choice, I'd rather be sitting in the rocking chair at home watching you sleep peacefully in my arms. I wish I could tell you happy birthday and that Mommy and Daddy are coming for you very soon, but it's probably best that you're blissfully unaware. I feel confident that you are being loved immensely by your foster family, and for that I'm very grateful. Just a few more months and we get to meet you, watch you sleep, hear you cry, hear you laugh, watch you play with your big brother, and cherish every second of the rest of your life, it can't come soon enough! We love you and we hope and pray you had a very Happy 1st Birthday!!!!! 

Love,

Mommy & Daddy

SuRpRiSe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last Thursday was a very normal day, until about 1pm...

 Jason was out of town at a conference and Jax and I were just going through our day as usual... breakfast, preschool, naptime, etc. I have been anxious to hear about first approvals for some close friends of mine, but I knew there was nothing exciting coming up for us until at least April.... or so I thought! I certainly wasn't awaiting a call from Holt. As I was lying down with Jax for his nap, my phone rang and it said, "HOLT"(still makes my heart skip a beat remembering THE CALL), so I ran out into the hall and answered it. It was the Thailand program assistant, whom I knew had been in Thailand the last week, but I was not expecting to hear from her for any reason. She quickly told me why she was calling, and my heart jumped out of my chest and started doing the happy dance!!!!! She had visited several foster homes while in Thailand and Jade's was one of them! O.... M...... G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She went on to tell me that she had several pictures for us, as well as a few short videos of our girl! We had accepted that we weren't going to receive any new information about her at all until April, so you can imagine my shock and amazement and CrAzY eXcItEmEnT!!!!!!!!!! I was beside myself. Jason was in meetings so I couldn't call, but I texted him immediately, and that text had A LOT of exclamation marks! I sat down at the computer and repeatedly refreshed my email until the email finally came through, and just like that, I went from wondering what my sweet girl looked like now, to watching her crawl and play and chew on her sweet, li'l fat fingers, and let me just tell you, SHE...IS...AMAAAAAZING!!!!!!! From the sound of it, she is spunky! The word that was used to describe her was "firecracker", so it sounds like she's gonna take after her mommy! :-) She is super chunky. I'm talkin' thighs that you just wanna squeeze! She has lots of black hair and it looks a little bit curly around her ears. Her eyes are big and brown and very bold, and her lips are the most perfectly shaped lips I think I have ever seen in my life! She is perfect, and so is God's timing! When I would think of waiting until April to see updated pics, I came close to a meltdown nearly every time; and when I would think of Jade's upcoming first birthday without having seen her since she was 4 months, my heart would break a little more with each of those thoughts.... But my Heavenly Father holds my heart in His hands and He is faithful! He blessed me with not only pictures of her but also video, and just 2 weeks before her first birthday! Unlike typical updates we receive, these pictures are not delayed, they were taken just about 2 weeks ago,  so now I will forever have pictures of her right at her one year mark, and that is HUGE for this momma's heart! Of course, my heart still aches to have her home, to be able to rock her to sleep and make her giggle and comfort her fears like mommy's do, but mostly, my heart is happy and thankful right now. I am thrilled to have 10 new pictures of her to stare at and 4 videos of her in action, and I know my God is faithful and "He that began a good work will complete it"(Philippians 1:6)! In just about 5 more months, I could be blogging about how tired I am from chasing after her, because that's how close we are to bringing her home! Wow! It's been a long journey and it's not over yet, but my baby girl will be home with her family in less than a year and that, my friends, brings me pure joy!