One Month Forever Family Anniversary

Wow! One short month has changed all of our lives...especially Cara's. The first picture at the top was Gotcha Day. It shows her emotions perfectly. She is nervously biting her lips and is sweating so much her hair was wet. I can't even imagine ever being as brave as she was at that moment. I never, ever want her to feel that kind of fear again. Look at her now! She dances with Hi Bao (Shanghai Expo mascot) while watching Glee, she is making friends with Tiger, the cat, and she gets to go outside whenever she wants.

She has gone from living in a room of 20 children with approximately 9 nannies that rotated in and out to living in her own home with a loving family. She has gone from living in a city where most of what you see is gray concrete and no animals to living in the country where there is lots of trees, green grass, and she is surrounded by animals. She has gone from a place where the sky is almost always gray to a place where the sky is almost always blue. She has gone from living in a city of 19.3 million people to living close to a town with the population of 2,198 (we just got our first stop light this year!). She has gone from having no family/relatives to having 2 grandmas, a great grandma, a grandpa, 3 loving aunts (2 close, 1 in Spokane), 1 uncle who gives great piggy-back rides, 3 fun cousins, a sister, a brother, a mommy and a daddy.

She used to wear whatever was clean and it wasn't necessarily hers, or matched, or fit. Now she has lots of clothes with matching bows and shoes (the baby Uggs are in the mail!). Every morning she looks at herself in the mirror, pats herself and says, "Mei li," which means beautiful in Mandarin. I'm so happy she sees herself as beautiful and seems so happy. She likes to kiss, hug and cuddle. I asked the orphanage director a couple of weeks ago if she was always so kissy and huggy and she said no. I can only hope that she feels the love we have for her and wants to return it because she finally has a family of her own.

I am so filled with happiness and joy over this wonderful addition to our family.