3 Years That Seems Like Forever In the Very Best Way!!!

Last Friday Hannah and I celebrated our 3rd Family Day together!  3 years ago, shortly after 3pm on Monday, November 2nd, 2009  in Changsha, Hunan, China, God brought Hannah and I together – FOREVER!!!  Life changed in the most amazing way at that very moment and we are forever blessed to be a family! 

Hannah was just 8 months, 6 days old at our family day and the transition for her went very smoothly.  She had been prayed for for many years by many people and once she was in my arms I wasn’t putting her down!  She spent hours each day for a number of months, in a carrier.  I am so thankful that I had learned much about attachment parenting and was able to do this with Hannah.  Even now at 3.5 years old, when she’s having a rough day, if I pull out a carrier and put her in it she calms almost immediately and melts into me.  It continues to be her ‘safe place’ and grounds her. 

I was blessed that day at her openness.  While I thought it would be me getting to know her she was very interested in getting to know mommy too.

A gift for mommy – smiles and giggles!  I saw her dimple for the first time!

Now that Hannah is 3 1/2 she’s beginning to understand a bit more and yet still does not understand too much about her adoption and the way God chose create our family and bring us together.  She knows that she was born in China and we always speak of China in a very positive way but she has yet to grasp that I did not give birth to her.  That will come and I am praying that I will know the right time to share this with her and God will provide the words.  We watched the videos of our meeting and talked about the nannies who had cared for her and brought her to Mommy but still it did not seem to spawn any questions at this time.  More than anything, at her tender age I don’t want to scare her so that is part of my hesitation in not talking directly of it yet.  Also, she hasn’t really put 2 and 2 together yet.  3 close friends had babies recently and she saw their tummies growing and then the babies were all here but she hasn’t really spoken of it. 

One comment that did make me giggle though was the one day when I mentioned we were going to the hospital to meet her new baby cousin and her question was, ‘Mommy, why are we going to the hospital?  Babies come from China and we meet them at the airport!’  Heh…yes, sweetie, many times that is what happens!

Friday we celebrated 3 glorious years together!  Truly it seems like we’ve been together forever and I love, love, love being Hannah’s mom!  She’s loving, fun, outgoing, spunky, clever, adventurous, humorous, creative, kind, sweet and SO much more!!  There are not enough positive adjectives to talk about my amazing daughter!!!

Friday night we went out to a special restaurant she’s been asking to go to for quite a while now.  A wonderful Chinese food buffet near our home.  Grandma and Grandpa were already in Florida (waiting for us to arrive soon) but we were excited that Papa could help us celebrate this very special occasion!

Hannah, Mommy cannot express to you how much I love you!  You are the joy of my life and I thank God daily for the precious gift that is you!

Before I was quite ready to publish this post Hannah came up and said, ‘Mommy, I drew this picture of you and me together.’  Can I tell you, it’s the most beautiful drawing ever!!  It’s the very first time she’s drawn a picture of us and I almost cried when I saw it.  I am SO, SO blessed!

To close I want to share one final video that was taken the second day we were together.  Oh how I love this precious moment that was captured.  I still love to watch her fall asleep and last night she did so in my arms once again.  It’s as precious now as it was that night 3 years ago.

Happy Family Day Hannah XiaoFen!!!  I LOVE YOU!  xoxo