Been waiting for this day!

Yes it's true.  I have, in fact, been waiting for this day for about a year.  It's the day that we could celebrate a birthday WITH Sunshine instead of FOR her.  You may remember the hysterics of an attempted group picture last year for her first birthday?  Man looking back at those pictures brings back a flood of memories and different feelings!

Although her "technical" birthday is still a week away, we celebrated her 2nd birthday Chinese-style on Saturday - complete with fruit-topped cake and yummy Chinese food!  Sunshine wasn't nearly as thrilled about the cake as everyone else was though.  I predicted she wouldn't want to dig in because of her disdain for being dirty, but I truly believe a cake smash is a rite of passage that all little ones must endure, um I mean, have the pleasure of experiencing :-)  She ate a few pieces of the fruit off and then was up and on her merry way, despite Angel's and Daddy's best attempts otherwise.

It was quite funny to see Sunshine taking everything in ... although she obviously knew we had family and some friends over to our home, she had no idea they were there for HER.  Watching her watch the cake and everyone staring and singing at her was priceless.  Totally clueless!

Of all things at the party, I think Sunshine enjoyed her balloon art the most (more on that in another post - Stanley the Magician was a HUGE hit with the kids AND adults!).  But she also enjoyed all the attention too, a major first for her!  What a change we witnessed on Saturday, compared to any other parties or functions we've hosted OR been to.  Sunshine was up in the mix with everyone and interacted with friends she never would have in the past.  It was quite a transformation, amazing what (almost) a year home will do!  She was passed around from family member to friend, back to family member, back to friend again ... the whole day!  Many different people fed her off their plates, although she was especially fond of Melissa and Ryan (thanks you two!).  It made this mama's heart feel good to see how well she did ... all of the love and hard work has paid off!  I know the rest of you adoptive mamas can relate :-)  What a beautiful, priceless change to witness.  God is so good!

PS - I apologize, I am not a very good event photographer at all ... especially when the event is MINE.  So although I was able to document some of the day ... well there were many wonderful, spectacular moments that went un-photographed :-(  During these times, I much prefer to live in the moment than behind my lens!  Thanks to our dear friend, Arnold, for snapping a few pictures of us with our girl!


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