Today we celebrated the one year anniversary of adopting Mei Lin. What an amazing little blessing this sweet girl is! It shouldn't have surprised me, but I don't think I expected just how much she'd enhance all of our lives. She's so full of fun and joy. I just love her little smile greeting me every morning and her little voice chattering and singing and laughing. True, things were much quieter before this little spirited one came home, but I love all the noise and mess and tantrums she's added to our family. I wouldn't trade any of it for the desperately needed R&R (LOL). I don't want to sound cliche, but I can't stop thinking about the absolute miracle adoption is. These girls feel like my very soul. It just amazes me how God weaves these little beings into our hearts.
Mei Lin was so excited to hear it was her family day even though she had no idea what that meant. She kept singing "Happy Bewfday to me!"
We were all pretty tired tonight so Pat picked up PF Changs instead of going out (and Mei Lin's tantrum over the dress I wanted her to wear seemed a foreshadowing of things to come that evening). After dinner Mei Lin opened the gift we bought her in Kunming and the girls played.
You know I always overdo the pictures, but here's a little side by side comparison from the day she was officially ours and one year later...
Holding her for the first time.
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Later that day: The "I'm not so sure about you yet" look.
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ONE YEAR LATER (TODAY)...she's sure about everything.
And I always love to see how these kids change and grow, so here are month to month pictures of her over the year.
MAY
Feeling at home already!
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JUNE
What's so striking about this photo is the fact that she's almost Miyah's size now and she's so much smaller here.
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JULY
All-American Girl!
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AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
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OCTOBER
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NOVEMBER
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DECEMBER
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JANUARY
2nd Birthday!
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FEBRUARY
TODAY!
This is no small miracle...we're all home for dinner
(actually this was taken right before Matt gave Mei Lin a sweet kiss and dashed out the door).
Mei Lin got a little purse made in Kunming with some little knitted Chinese dolls from A Gift from China (my favorite store in Guangzhou).
Happy Forever Family Day, Sweetheart! We love you ALWAYS AND FOREVER!
7 incredible comments!:
SWEET!!! Happy Family Day beautiful girl!!
She is so beautiful! I love all the pictures!!! Sarah has her family day in just 6 days. It is so close to Thomas' day we will do something for all 3 kids together. Juergen is going to be in India on the actual day. Life does get loud…but I wouldn’t give that up either. Who needs to be sleeping?
Wow! I can't believe that a year has passed. Happy Family Day!
Terri
We were thinking of you all and how amazing that day and this year have been. Happy Family Day!!
beautiful beautiful photos! Happy family day. Your family is lovely. Love all the pics from memory lane.
She is just so pretty!! I love all the 'months' and I can't believe how the year has flown by. I remember all of these shots!
Where does Matt go? We are just getting ready to enter this stage. I could use some tips on how to think about it all and what rules to apply etc!!
As always, I love all the words you write!! Great post and thanks for sharing this. (I am stilled bummed I didn't get to see Easter dresses!... kidding!)
Thanks for all of the pictures. I have wanted to do that for my kids and haven't made the time. I get so busy and I am working haard to try and post something everyday. I would love to do a month by month post and I just need to take the time to do it! The pictures are amazing by the way.
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