Forever Family 永遠家庭

Just moments before we met Lucy for the first time.

I have been contemplating the arrival of this day for sometime, as it marks a very important and special day for us.  As most families celebrate the birth of their child, today marks a different type of  'birth' for us.  It was one year ago today that God brought Lucy to us and she was placed in our arms for the very first time.  Sometimes it seems like it was just yesterday, and at other moments it seems like Lucy has always been with us.  I thought that I might post video of that day, as it captures the moment much better than I could ever describe.  If you need some comic relief while watching this potential tear-jerker,  just ask yourself  why is it that Brian and I decided we were both going to dress like jail house escapees on this, notably one of the most important days of our lives?  (My pre-video answer:  our minds were someplace else--imagine that!--while getting dressed that morning.)  At any rate, here we are, holding Lucy for the first time...December 6th, 2009:

I am not sure if others viewing this have the same reaction as me, and maybe it will sound a bit odd, but watching this breaks my heart.  Our little girl is scared to death.  The only way that I can try to understand how Lucy must have been feeling is to think about what it would be like if I was abducted by aliens.  And I don't say this in jest. We were nothing of what our girl had known up to that point in her 11 months of life.  We looked and sounded different.  The entire scene (as you could probably sense and hear) was chaotic.  Here we were in our hotel lobby, other crying babies surrounding us, all kinds of things being handed to us, our guide directing us in what we needed to do next... And all that was probably going through little Lucy's head and heart was: where is my world?  what is happening?  who are these strange people?  At one point in the video you can see Lucy looking at Brian, and it is evident this is what she is thinking/feeling.

Hello, sweet girl....

When I watch this, I realize one thing:  how much I have fallen in love with my daughter.  It is not that I didn't love her then.  But I now realize that my love was only capable of reaching a certain level since I did not know her yet.  I have to imagine that this is a similar experience that parent's have when their child is in utero verses when their child first enters this world and they come to know them. Now that Lucy has been in my life, and I have come to know her loving, affectionate, sensitive, social, curious personality, there are really no words to describe the love that fills my heart. I have no doubt that Brian would say the same thing.  How blessed we are.

Asleep at last... Lucy's first night with us.

And now, my post-video explanation for why Brian and I both wore stripes that day.   Did you notice how Lucy had stripes on too?  The orphanage brought all the girls dressed  in these tiger suits in honor of the upcoming Year of the Tiger in China.  Now obviously, we didn't know Lucy was going to be sporting stripes like her Mama and Dada.  But now it all makes sense, doesn't it?  It was divine intervention, you see.

Happy Forever Family Day to you, sweet Lucy.