Happy Birthday Lily!

In just a few hours on the other side of the world you will be waking up on your first birthday! We wish more than anything that we could be there with you, to see you eat your first piece of cake, to watch you open presents, and most of all to tell you how much we love you and how happy we are that you were born.

While it breaks my heart to miss this very important milestone, I am so thankful that this is the only birthday I will miss. And while we can't celebrate WITH you, we can still celebrate YOU! You are a daughter, a sister, a granddaughter, a niece, and a friend. You are a child of God, and we are so thankful He has entrusted us with you. We can't wait to bring you home, but until then, we send you our love you and pray for you every day.

We sent you a birthday cake, some new clothes, and a book so hopefully you will get to enjoy those sometime today. We hope that they bring you joy and help you to know that we love and care for you. Happy Birthday little ladybug!

Shortly after I wrote this post, Caroline wanted to play with her cupcakes and sing Happy Birthday. I told her it was Lily's birthday, and was able to catch her singing.

Lily Update!

It's been over 2 months since we first saw our sweet Lily's picture, and I was getting more than a little antsy to see her again. There's a company called LadyBugsNLove that will call your child's orphanage for you, request updated measurements and pictures, and ask up to 10 questions on your behalf. So last week I ordered the phone call, and much to my delight got 2 new pictures and some updated info on Tuesday!

Lily is now crawling and loves it! She is 11 months old, about 18 pounds and 28 inches tall. She also has teeth! I wasn't sure how that would work with her cleft palate, but it looks like once it's repaired her teeth will be in the right place. Her favorite activities are crawling and playing in her walker. She smiles easily but is shy around strangers and likes to be held when she is upset. (This should be interesting when some strange family comes to take her away from the only home she has ever known!)

I must admit that while getting these pictures was wonderful, it did make me a little sad. She is so much bigger than she was in the last pictures, which I think were taken at around 3 months, and it just made me realize even more all the time I was missing out on with her. And it made me even more anxious to move along quickly in this process! Unfortunately we are in the dark waiting period, where our dossier is being translated and approved in China. This process usually takes 2-3 months with no updates or hints of progress. So in the meantime we pray for her, we pray for patience and trust in God and his timing, and we stare at her sweet face dreaming of the day we finally get to hold her in our arms. She turns 1 on June 30th, so we plan on sending her a cake and a care package. Hopefully we will get some more pictures as well!