A Year Ago

A year ago (yesterday) we saw the face of our little girl for the first time!  I asked God the previous night if there was a little girl just right for us whom we could teach about His love for her.  At that moment, unknown to me until the morning, a file was sent to my email.  When I saw in the morning we had a new file to view, I didn't open it.  I sat and prayed for wisdom and I prayed that I would have an instant connection with this child if she was meant to come into our family. 
I opened the file and saw this precious face...

I couldn't take my eyes away from her serious and sweet face...then when I saw this picture, there were so many resemblences to the personality and smiles of our other children...

Matt's breath was taken away when he opened the file.  He always heard that you will just know when you see her and he thought that to be silly and not a response that he would have.  But when he saw her pictures, he knew.  Even though we were anxious and made many many phone calls and had read the file many times, there was a peace present.  I remember being on the phone with a doctor and thinking "why am I asking so many questions?".  I had a peace that she was our daughter and God was bringing our paths together. 

Reflecting back over the year, we are so grateful that we said "yes" to this precious child.  We are so thankful to God for bringing her into our lives.  We can't begin to express our gratitude for the people who helped care and teach her and love on her for the first 4 years of her life.  And we know that we wouldn't have gotten this far if it wasn't for the friends and family who supported us along the way and prayed for our daughter until God brought us together.