ANNIVERSARY DAY

In some ways it is unbelievable to me, but today marks one year since the first in person meeting of my precious Zhuang Lu Mai, now Emma LuMai Broberg. What a joyous day that was and what a year it has been! (Well, actually because China is almost a day ahead of us, we passed the one year mark yesterday on December 4th...but thats just logistics).

Of course it is impossible to count all the ways that my life has been changed and blessed by the presence of this beautiful person into my life. She is truly amazing and brings me such joy, purpose and fun.

This past weekend Emma and I went to Portland to celebrate this Family Day Anniversary with three of the other families that travelled together to China to pick up our girls. (There was one other family, they live in Alaska and adopted twins, so no one has heard a peep from them...but we think a lot about our sweet Bei Bei and Bao Bao and hope they are all well.) Anyway, it was just wonderful to see these four precious girls who had spent the early months of their lives together. They had all grown so much and come so far. What a special relationship they share, even if they don't know it yet. Here is a picture of the four of them together:

On our return home from our fun trip we had a very odd coincidence. Los Angeles is not a small airport and there are hundreds of gates. For somereason the airport gate that we were assigned for our return was in United International Terminal. As we exited the gate, I looked around and realized that it looked awfully familiar and knew that it was, in fact, the gate that I had been scheduled to go through one year ago on the first leg of my journey to China and to my Emma. Just kind of an interesting coincidence...but one that did not escape my memories as this time I entered that gate, now with my beautiful child in my arms, fast asleep on my shoulder. I had to pause to acknowledge my blessings and express gratitude for all the events that have occurred this past year.

Here is a comparison picture of Emma, from our first day together and now one year later in front of the Christmas tree. What a beauty she is!