4 year adoption day....

The above photo was taken 8 days before the courts in Kazakhstan told us "she's yours"! That was 4 years ago this September 17th. We've slightly debated whether or not to make a big deal of celebrating this day or not, as we do not want to single her out from the other girls. However, it is SO hard not to celebrate and get sentimental because that was the day we became parents. THAT was her "birth day" in a sense for us. THAT was the day the reality that she was truly ours came to pass. THAT was the day with tears in our eyes we rode with our sleeping new baby girl out of the gates of the baby house--after all those months of labor and prayerful "wanting". THAT was the day our lives were changed forever.
We are so deeply grateful to the Lord for the blessing of her life, that we can't keep quiet. So we will keep celebrating "with" her until and unless one day she decides she'd rather we not draw attention to it and we will respectfully oblige.
My mom, her Mimi, says she can't ever imagine Jaci not loving the attention it brings...so we shall see.
The night before Daddy explained that we would celebrate adoption day as a family when he got home from work the next day. She asked me if we would "celebrate before the celebration" tomorrow... Too cute. We did start the celebration early with a gift. An "angel" charm...
You see, we started a charm bracelet her first year with us, on which we intend each Adoption Day to add a new charm. She will not be allowed to keep the bracelet in her care until her late teens. However, I did let her wear her charm on a necklace ONLY for the day.
We went to the park for playgroup and she ran up to one of the moms and declared, "Today is my adoption day!" She then proceeded to show the mother the angel charm around her neck. Thankfully this new acquaintance of mine "made over her" on her special day. I told her she would be allowed also to wear it on Sunday (she'd like to show her Sunday school teachers) but then we will put it in a safe place until she is older. Also, note the necklace of mine(that Auntie Ruth Ann made for me long ago) I let Lainey wear for the day, so she would know how special she is, too!


When Jaci woke up from her nap today (adoption day) she said, "I'm so proud to be part of this family. It's going to be so fun to celebrate my adoption day." I think she meant "happy" to be part of the family (the girls tend to use proud in that sense and I'm trying to explain what it really means!)...
When daddy got home from work, he took us to dinner to celebrate. Jaci opened a second gift (earrings from Mimi and Pepe) and 2 matching plastic rings for the "sissies". They asked where Emilyn's was... ha. The matching rings made it more of a family affair. In fact, we kind of touched on the idea of making it "family celebration day" instead of merely "adoption day" so that ALL are included in some way. It's not just Jaci's special day, it was a special day for ALL of us. Without that day, the girls would not have their big sister...and we would not have our baby. It is adoption day for ALL of us.
The day ended with Jaci's "favorite"...cake! Oh, and then a snuggle on the floor with daddy reading. In closing, please say a prayer for my brother's family as they endure the incredibly long process of adopting a little girl from China. Please pray for my "unknown by us, but known by God" niece, while you're at it! Before we know it, they'll be blogging their own "adoption day". Stay tuned here!