One year

One year ago on June 7, 2011, our baby girl was placed in my arms.  Our lives were forever changed.  Looking back over the pictures from that day, my heart hurts for the loss that she endured, having no certainty in her life and not knowing what was happening.  She was so incredibly brave and courageous, not even shedding a tear over her life being turned upside down.

Although adoption is always born out of loss and grief, it is an amazing story of redemption.  God's love for us is overwhelming.  Just as we all are adopted into His Heavenly kingdom and made new, Sunshine also was made new that day.  She continues to be made new every single day through God's redemptive and unconditional love.  Even though the images from that day are sometimes difficult for me to look through, I also see God's grace and love overflowing in them.

This past year has been the most amazing and most difficult of our lives.  Although we have gone through so many hard days together, we have also triumphed over seemingly impossible tasks in indescribable ways.  God has surely been with us through the good and the rough, smiling down as we persevered.  I know all of you adoptive families can most definitely relate :-)

I have been writing a well-worded, flowery post over and over in my head for weeks to celebrate this most-special anniversary.  But now that the time has come, I think it's best just to keep it simple.  Although yes, Sunshine's life was surely changed in positive ways ... we are the ones that are blessed.  We have learned more about ourselves and grown in our relationships with Jesus and with each other.  We have seen firsthand what God's grace really means and how beautiful His unconditional love is.  We sit in awe as we've had the chance to witness such remarkable beauty.

Happy Gotcha Day to our gorgeous little Sunshine.  We love you to the moon and back and are so blessed to have the honor of being your family.