4 Years Ago Today............

Paul & I woke up in Hefei, China with excitement & anticipation as we were about to meet our 15 month old daughter, Chu Young Wen. It had been a long journey to that point, but thankfully God had chosen us to take a different route to parenthood.

We enjoyed breakfast with the 6 other families who we had traveled with us & were also about to meet their daughters who were from the same orphanage, Chuzhou Welfare Institute, & then we all journeyed to the conference room at our hotel where we would wait for the girls to arrive. Paul & I will never forget that moment when the girls & their nannies entered the room. It was breathtaking. Each girl was being held by her nanny who immediately sat down & waited for the reunions to begin.

Our first glimpse of our sweet little girl:

She finally looks our way with a little coaxing from her nanny!

We were the third family called to meet our baby girl. Paul & I had decided that I would be the one the nanny handed Zoe to. What an emotional event!

She finally calmed down (for a little while!).

Handing her off to Daddy while Mommy filled out some paperwork. (Not sure if she was trying to get a swing in!!!!)

And the tears begin again.........

Once the paperwork for the orphanage was complete, we took Zoe back to our hotel room & began bonding. We first took off the numerous layers of clothes she was wearing & changed her diaper. For quite some time she sat in a chair & just kind of watched us with an uncertain look.

Who are these people & what are they doing here?....

Daddy giving her Cheerios & feeding her some baby food.

She kind of liked the idea of us giving her food.....

Just taking it all in........

Later while holding her Zoe fell asleep in my arms. As much as I wanted to keep in her in that position, I had to lay her down because Paul & I both had some paperwork for China that had to be completed before that night's meeting with our coordinator.

(She often sleeps like this still.)

Once she was awake, we gave Zoe her first bath. She didn't know what to think of the running water so I ended up taking her first bath with her. We then got her dressed & enjoyed playing with her the rest of the evening.

What a cutie!

It's hard to believe that Zoe has been a part of our lives for 4 years. It seems like yesterday we we became a forever family. As you can imagine, she is our pride & joy & the love of our lives. To this day we are amazed how blessed we are that Zoe was chosen to be our child. People have told us many times how lucky Zoe is that she has us. We tend to disagree.....We are the lucky ones - Lucky that we have her!

Happy Gotcha Day, Zoe! We Love You!