And what a birthday it was! This was one of those rare occasions that the event lived up to the hype. We celebrated from Thursday til Sunday, with anyone and everyone who’d join us. From Thursday night’s dinner with Kimmy, Delma, Joyce, and Evangeline, to my brother and his family coming up to visit, to DelGrosso’s with the cousins and Kim’s mom, to Sunday at church…we were a non-stop party.
We ate 2 ice cream cakes, rode countless spinny-rides (I hate spinny rides, btw), had some epic water battles, lost and found a zillion silly bands, stayed up late and had some awesome sleepovers…
Annabelle loved every minute of it. Each gift was special to her. She was thankful to receive the things she got, and if I heard her say, “Oooh, I love it!” once, I heard her say it a hundred times. We shared lots of special moments over the course of a few days, and created some lasting memories. But do you know what was the kicker for me?
Hearing 400+ people sing Happy Birthday to Annabelle Sunday morning at church. Now, Happy Birthday isn’t really a worship song, but I just know that Jesus and the angels were joining us as we sang! That moment will be forever etched in my heart. It hit me like a ton of bricks, and I almost lost it. To think that just a year ago we were praying about whether we should take a chance on an older child waiting to be adopted from China…and now she’s sleeping upstairs in our house.
This little girl, with no family, no connections, no real sense of love or home or family…now she’s got it all in abundance! She’s come quite a long way, and has done it with flair!
Thank you, dear friends, for helping us along our journey. Thanks for praying and giving, for investing in our family, for helping us bring Annabelle into our home, for asking how she’s doing, and for loving us. Our lives have been forever changed, her destiny forever altered, our family forever blessed…
0 Comments