One Year Together

One year ago today, we first met our precious little girl.  I am always reminded of the first time we saw her when I hear the song  A Thousand Years by Christina Perri.  While we were waiting for Harper’s paperwork to be processed by the Chinese government– it felt like a thousand year wait.  The song begins:

The day we met

Frozen, I held my breath

Right from the start,

I knew that I’d found a home for my heart  

   

 Watching you stand alone (Harper was standing all by herself watching us from across the room)

All of my doubt (I had a lot of doubts if we were doing the right thing by adopting)

Suddenly goes away somehow (I knew as soon as I saw her that everything would be fine and we were meant to be together)

I have died every day waiting for you

Darling, don’t be afraid

I have loved you for a thousand years

I’ll love you for a thousand more

We are so thankful that Harper came into our lives.  Our home is now filled with constant giggles and the pitter-patter of little feet RUNNING through it!  Many people comment that Harper is lucky to have been adopted.  They are so wrong!  We are the lucky ones and are blessed to have her in our lives.  This child is so spectacular!  

 Opening Gotcha Day presents from Grandpa and Grandma Braley

Celebrating with Sissy!

We celebrated our Forever Family Day by going to Build A Bear to adopt a bear.  We recorded a message in the bear and hope to make a tradition of this every year for our Gotcha Day celebration. 

Harper knew exactly which bear she wanted!

We gave Harper a Pandora Charm bracelet with a Forever Together charm and will buy her a new charm each year to celebrate the day we met.  I hope she will treasure this keepsake for many years, and I hope it will always remind her how much we love and cherish her.   

We ate lunch at North Dragon Chinese restaurant.

 Finally, we went to play at Penguin Park.

 What a wonderful day we had together!  And what a fantastic year it has been!