Another Mini Birthday

Emerson turns 9 months today! Happy (mini) birthday, my beautiful baby girl!

How is it that time can move so slowly and yet so fast? The wait for her seems to be moving at a snail's pace but then halfway around the world, our baby girl is growing up so quickly.

Development milestones Emerson's expected to hit this month are:

• possibly experiencing separation anxiety as now she is able to identify familiar faces and expect predictability,


• recall memory (such as recalling where her toys are),


• her babbling will start to turn into jabbering and may even start to sound like real words,


• her personality will start to emerge. Her shyness has been mentioned in the past, so it'll be interesting to see if that solidifies or changes...

What I'm quickly learning about the adoption journey is that it's filled with bittersweet moments. You are so happy and overjoyed at all the wonderful milestones and growth your baby is achieving, but just a bit sad at the same time that you can't be there to share these moments. I know, I know - we will have a lifetime together in the future and I definitely can't wait for those as well, but it's just so hard to be away from her. But the most important thing is that she's growing happily and healthy!

In conjunction with Emerson's mini birthday, yesterday we got the last of the necessary approvals we were waiting for from the US government. We checked the mail everyday this week for this notice and finally received it yesterday. I was a little worried that with the threat of a possible government shutdown that our paperwork may be delayed, but nope, they took care of it just fine. And no government shutdown either so everything worked out in the end. :)

Our precious Emerson.... look at you all growing up into such a beautiful and smart baby girl. We are so unbelievably thankful to God as He seems to be making sure you are hitting all those monthly milestones right on the dot, if not even earlier! We miss you so much. I am praying you can come home SOON. Happy mini-birthday, our daughter. We love you!!!!