Forever Family Day!

Today marks one year ago since we received Myah into our family forever. Who knew what a profound impact that one moment would have on our lives. I will never forget how she felt when they placed her in my arms. She was heavier than I imagined her to be. She was sticky from being so warm. Her clothes fit her just perfectly almost too perfectly, she was just about ready to outgrow the new outfit they had dressed her in for this special occasion. I was suprised to see her in shorts, I had read so many stories about the clothing police in China and how they are constantly bundling up the babies. I was relieved to see her dressed appropriately for the super hot weather in Wuhan, one of the 3 furnaces of China. All the pictures we had received she had several layers of puffy clothing on so I wasn't sure if she was a bigger baby or just looked that way due to the way she was layered. I will never forget how she smelled. It wasn't a foul odor just different. Somewhat clean, somewhat musky. Just different. Her hair was so cute, I couldn't believe how much she had. I had done my research and figured that she might be in piggie tails when we got her due to all of her hair. That seemed to be the style for babies with longer hair in China. Her little piggie tails were hitting my face every time she whipped around really quickly to see what was going on around her. She came to me very calmly at first and then the tears came. To hear her cries out loud was a precious moment to me. I knew that she could talk but this was the first time I heard her little voice. She had a deeper voice. She was becoming very intriguing to me. I tried to give her toys but she didn't want them, or the snacks I was offering. The next few minutes were spent gathering our items, trying to calm her down, admiring the other six babies in our group, and taking a bus ride back to the hotel. She fell asleep on the bus, I held onto her for dear life. Like I did when they wheeled me out to the car to take Dayton home from the hospital. It was that same feeling. Even though we were thousands of miles away from home, I was proud to take her. Even if we were just going back to the hotel, she was my precious baby forever. As my Grandma Friend used to tell everyone about the night I was born:" we looked into each other's eyes and fell in love and have been that way ever since." A year has gone by and I am sad in a way because I think back to our days in China and I miss them. We spent our first few weeks as a family getting to know each other. Those most precious moments took place in her country, where she was comfortable. She has done such a remarkable job of adjusting to our culture. I am so thankful for the time we spent in China. We tried to learn so much while we were there and I was constantly taking notes so that we can share this information with Myah someday. We can't even begin to express how this experience has changed our lives. We love our little Myah so much and pray that she will want to celebrate this day in her life, the day we became her family.