Before And After

Today it's been three weeks since we first met our Maia! It truly feels like a lifetime ago that we were all sitting together in that damp, cool room of the Civil Affairs Office in Nanjing, waiting anxiously for that first glimpse of our babies. Those final days leading up to meeting Maia were some of the most anxious and emotional days of my whole life. I could barely eat or sleep those last nights before she was ours, with my mind flooding with questions and worries about what it woud REALLY be like to be united to the beautiful child who we only knew through pictures. But can I tell you how well I slept THE night we were joined with her?? My poor Prince Charming barely slept a wink through my snoring! It was as if I had somehow found that missing piece of my heart. I could finally rest and sleep and let the years of wondering go. Not because things were perfect. But because SHE was perfect for US! She truly was exactly the piece of the puzzle that we had been searching for:) When I pulled up our old pictures of her today, my heart just ached to see the sadness in her eyes. So many times I've found myself wondering if she's the same little girl in those pictures, and yet I know that she is. I know only because we've watched those same sad eyes disappear before us and begin to beem with happiness and joy here in her family. How blessed we are to be a part of the miracle of seeing a new life begin for her!



(The first picture was taken when Maia was around 2 years old and was the first and only picture we had of her for 6 months!)