新年快樂

I was THRILLED to be able to celebrate Chinese New Year with our adoption agency. Actually, "thrilled" is kind of an understatement - I was counting down the days all week until Saturday! It was a bit of a drive for us, but so unbelievably worth it! I'm not sure how much CNY celebrating we did - it seemed more like a reunion of sorts, but I guess that's celebration enough! I have been waiting and waiting to meet a few amazing ladies and I finally had the chance on Saturday :-)

This first picture is unfortunately the best group shot that we got - but hey, what can you expect after 2 hours? The kids were SPENT. LOL. I was also forced to use my flash (which I loathe) because it was just too dark for the ambient light. But whatever - at least this super-fun event is documented! This awesome family, the W.'s, will be traveling with us when we go to China to get Sunshine. And not only are they traveling with us, their daughter is also at the same orphanage and was born the DAY AFTER Sunshine. And oh yeah, she also has CL/CP, just like our Sunshine. Ummm, coincidence? I think not - God definitely had a hand in this one :-)

Angie and I have shared *many* emails over the last month since we were matched and we already feel as if we know each other. She's pretty much the coolest and I feel so blessed to be on this adoption journey with her family! I just know that our girls are going to grow up like sisters and I cannot wait for many, many years of wonderful memories with them.

This last picture is of Angie, me and my amazing friend Kelly, who I met at the CNY celebration on Saturday. Well, actually we have "known" each other for almost a year but we didn't technically meet until Saturday. LOL. Kelly was one of the first adoptive mommas I started talking to in this crazy journey - she is the person who pointed me in the direction of my adoption agency. I started emailing with her right before she left for China to adopt her baby girl, L. I had the privilege of "watching" her entire adoption trip through her blog, and I cried right along with her as she received her daughter :-)

I am so grateful for her friendship - she has been such a blessing over this past (almost) year. She has always been willing to answer my silly questions and has been such a support through our journey. She spent lots of time emailing me, praying and talking me through the process when we received Sunshine's referral. She helped give me perspective and was happy to rejoice and praise God with us when we accepted our referral. She has been *such* a blessing - I hope that one day I am able to support another adoptive family the way she has supported us :-)

I know this is just the beginning of many family get-togethers in the future. It was such a pleasure to finally meet both of these awesome families!