Happy Gotcha Day to You, Happy Gotcha Day to You, Happy Gotcha Day Dear Maella, Happy Gotcha Day to You!

Today is the first anniversary of Maella's Gotcha Day. Saturday, June 20, 2009, we walked into Maella's orphanage for the last time. There are not words to describe the feeling when you are finally handed your child and they are YOURS forever. Well, on loan from God of course. :o)

We had a wonderful day celebrating today, on Father's Day nonetheless! We enjoyed a water and theme park in the Dells and the Deer Park. Maella loves animals! She skipped around that park, raising her arms from time to time, saying Yay! She squeeled and laughed. She would walk right up to the animals with mom or dad beside her. We would feed them and Maella would just watch on, closeby, in wonder. She enjoyed herself, immensely. And that was our goal today, find something fun for our whole family but also center that activity around what Maella, at age 2, would love. We completed our day by watching the videos we recorded while in Russia on Gotcha Day and the one we took during our tour of the orphanage. It brought back some sweet memories, like when a caregiver called out good wishes and a sweet goodbye from the second floor window as we walked out of the orphanage on Gotcha Day. The images of 20 cribs in the sleeping room... I'll never forget that image in my head, but to see it again and with our boys - what a moment. And the pride and joy in our hearts and eyes as we videotaped ourselves playing with Maella in our hotel room in Moscow. It reminded me how good it felt when we got there, so relieved to be that much closer to home.





Maella
watching
our videos
from her
time in
Russia...



Wow, it really is amazing to think Maella has now been with us a full year. Some day I'll say that so much further down the road. I wonder now, what will she look like then? What will her interests be? How will she have embraced her adoption story? Will it someday become so normal to us that I don't think about it almost daily. Right now I still do. I look at her all the time and can't believe I get to be her mommy, that this sweet child who somehow looks alot like us, was born across the world. God is so amazing and good and I thank Him often for this marvelous and undeserved gift. A daughter so precious and perfect. Only God knew what child would be ours. We prayed for her before we knew her name, before she was even born. Only God knew.