Birthday Girl

While we were waiting to bring her home, we celebrated every monthly mini-birthday we were apart. Sometimes it was as small as just saying "Happy 16 months!" over our morning coffee, and other times we would go to happy hour after work and do a toast in honor of her day.  I always thought that the first birthday we would have with her would be a grand, big party.  But as it turns out, with her being home such a short amount of time still, we kept her first birthday celebration home really intimate and simple.  It was just the three of us celebrating throughout the day, and it.was.awesome.

I feel like Em knew it was her birthday.  She woke up in the best mood.  I told her it was her birthday and she loved it! Every time I wished her a happy birthday throughout the day she would scrunch up her face, laugh, and do a jiggy dance!  Daddy went in to work late and we all went out for some birthday pancakes.  Then he came home early for the actual cake and presents.

Holding daddy's hand after a yummy birthday breakfast.

This is the same hanbok she wore on her first birthday but it fits much better now.

Someone was loving her cupcake and ice cream!

We squeezed in behind her while she was playing to take somewhat of a family photo!

Happy Birthday, Emerson! This is just the first of many, many more we will be celebrating together as a family!!

Home

"For this child I have prayed..."

We have been home as a family for two and a half weeks now.  In some ways it seems as if we've been together much longer than that. We are just loving getting to know our beautiful daughter.  She is such an amazing little girl!  She loves to sing, laugh, and play.  She has the cutest laugh and we are very blessed to hear it often.  She is a super quick learner and has natural athletic and musical abilities!  She's also very talkative, and I'm loving having mini-conversations with her. I'm trying to teach her some English words right now, with "please" and "thank you" being one of the first we are trying to teach her to say. However, she absolutely refuses to say those.  She has a bit of a stubborn streak, which is offset by her tendency to be very sweet and funny most of the time. She started saying "coffee" right away as she knows mommy needs it first thing in the morning.  She also says "okay," "towel," "apple," and "walking" a lot.  Very random!

I will try to post more when I can.  I want to do a whole post on our whirlwind trip in Korea.  I also want to express a heartfelt  thank you once again to her wonderful, amazing foster family.  They came out to say good-bye and it was a very emotional day. I know that even though my little girl can't express it, she must miss them so very much.

I often find myself in awe that she is really here with us. That I can reach out and hold her hand and carry her or feed her. Thank you Lord for your faithfulness.