In Exactly Nine Days...

...it will our First Year Anniversary of becoming a family! I can still remember every detail of that day~our first meeting with our little Emma, how our faciliator put her in my arms, how tiny she was and how she cuddled up against me and fell alseep holding my finger with her little hand. I remember how i went into the other room to sit with Emma as she slept cuddled up against me; i was like every other first time Mommy as i counted fingers and toes and outlined her sweet face with my fingers. I remember smiling as she sighed in contentment, as if she knew she was right where she was suppose to be. I knew that we were right where God intended us to be and it was He who matched us together as a family. Two days later, we had our Embassy appointment and Emma was officially our daughter! We fell in love with her through photos and we were now a family. Although i was thrilled to have Emma in our arms, i don't think that Robert relaxed until we actually came off the plane in Nashville. To him, we were then truly HOME and could start our life together as a family.

Our adoption journey was amazing. Our agency was wonderful~even if updates on Emma were few and far between. We weren't able to visit as our visit trip became our pickup trip. It went so very fast for us. We recieved our referral of Emma on March 3 and we came home with her on July 13. Emma was 4 1/2 months old. I often wonder why our journey to Emma was really, so easy. It was almost as if God was leading us to her, pointing us in the direction to find Emma. Life is sweeter because of Emma, richer and fuller than i could have ever imagined.

Emma is 16 months old now! I thank God daily for her and for her birth mother who placed her for adoption; wanting a life for her that she felt adoption could provide. We have plans to visit Guatemala on extended vacations...it truly is a beautiful country with amazing people. I saw a beauty in Guatemala that took my breath away and i'm sure that Emma will also love her birth country as i do. There is so much i want to show Emma of Guatemala....and i don't want her to only know her birth country through photos that i've taken. That's no way to experience your birth place!

It's still very early so i'm going to sneak upstairs to Emma's room...and once again, silently thank God for bringing us together as a family.