Anya Mei's 1st Birthday - July 23, 2010

Today is an amazing day mixed with awe, wonder, excitment, and yet a very real sense of sadness and mixed emotions. Today is our precious Anya Mei's first birthday! We are longing to have our little girl home with us and enjoyed the day celebrating her with birthday cake (Kailan), presents, cards made by the kids, and video taped messages to Anya. We took several pictures on our camera to put in an albumn for her to one day have - remembering and celebrating her very first birthday. Today though so awesome and amazing in a sense was mixed with sadness of yes, not having her here with us, but also thinking much about her birth family. Today, one year ago, was the day that Anya was found abandoned by a gate in Guangdong province in Maoming City. I know that today her birth mother is thinking of her and wondering what has become of her baby girl. My heart breaks for her and I long - Mother to Mother - for her to know that her daughter is all right. I long for her to know that she will be in a home where she is loved and adored. That we will cherish her and love her as our own. I know that her mother must be thinking of her daughter today and today Anya is held dearly in both her mothers' hearts. I look at Anya's face, in the photographs we have, and wonder what her parents look like - knowing that both of them are very present in her appearance. I wonder if Anya has any brothers or sisters. I wonder if we will ever be able to uncover pieces to her history that will one day lead us back to her roots - where she began. I love my baby girl!
Today is Anya Mei's birthday! The day she entered into this world! She may not be bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh but she is very much "MY" daughter! From the beginning of time, she was predestined to be ours! We have prayed for this little girl years before she was ever conceived and our Father above destined that one day she would be ours. No, she may not look like the rest of us with her beautiful, shiny, black hair and big, brown eyes, but she is indeed ours! No doubt about it:) We love you Anya Mei! Happy 1st Birthday, Sweetheart!