A large family, homeschooling, adoption, special needs, whatever strikes my fancy, sort of blog.

A large family, homeschooling, adoption, special needs, whatever strikes my fancy, sort of blog.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Birthdays Bring Out The Deep Thoughts In Adoption


Guess who's seven??


My beautiful girl!


For Hannah, birthdays are still all about cake and presents and being the center of attention.


Unfortunately, it's a little different for me.


When I went in to her room to get her up, it was different than birthday mornings for my bio kids.


With the other kids, I have memories.  I have a story to tell them.  I know what the weather was like, what time of day they were born, what they looked like when they were born...


I've looked at the calendar for the day she was born, and there's nothing.


I can see by some of the other days that month what kind of things were going on in our world at the time.


But I have no memory of the day Hannah was born.


I was going about my day, without any clue that my life would be changed forever, when she drew her first breath.


I had no idea that this face:


which I would not see for almost 2 years, would be the catalyst that would send me across the ocean on an unbelievable adventure.


The last 3 years have been a time of growth for me on a personal level, as well as a time of wonder, in watching Hannah blossom in our family.


So my sadness on her birthday is really not about me, what I don't know.


It's about her.  The information I don't have to be able to tell her when she begins to understand the bigger ideas in adoption.


But for now, I'll just smile at her excitement over cake and presents.


And rejoice that she's part of our family.


And enjoy these special moments with this very special girl.


And acknowledge that I am so lucky to be her mom.

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15 comments:

  1. Beautiful pictures of a beautiful girl! Hope her birthday was special.

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  2. What a beautiful post! I can tell that you love your daughter so much! She's beautiful!

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    1. Thanks, Susan. I still remember the surreal feeling, that after all the paperwork, all the time and money and forms and travel, they were just going to GIVE us this child!

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  3. Beautiful photos! You are blessed!

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    1. Thank you, Starla. She's been a huge blessing to our family, and changed ME so much. Adoption has been an amazing journey.

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  4. Oh I love this, thanks so much for sharing with #throwbackthursdaylinkup. What a contagious smile little Hannah has. I feel for you not knowing what Hannah's birth or life was like before she came to your family, but what a special journey you all have been through together. You chose to be her mom, and that's a pretty amazing gift to give her.

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    1. Thank you! :) It has been a very special journey, indeed.

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  5. Aww, this is a beautiful story. Are all of your children adopted? Sorry, I haven't read up on all of your posts yet so I'm not sure who's who. I am encouraged by your story because I have been thinking of adopting one day. I bring it up to my husband sometimes...it's a possibility. We're still young (25 to be exact) so children isn't really in the plans as of yet. I just always thought that to adopt would be such a different kind of blessing. I would love to be able to one day when we have the space and the funds.

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    1. Hi Nicole! :) Glad you stopped by! No, our first 7 kids are bio. Then we were "done" for a few years. The last 3 were adopted. Adoption has been quite an adventure!

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  6. Oh, and I found you on the #ThrowbackThursdaylinkup

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  7. Thank you for linking up to the Hearts for Home blog hop last week. Your post has been selected to feature on the Family Themed Hearts for Home blog hop post over at Monsters Ed. Please remember to grab our "I was featured" button to feature on your post.

    http://www.monstersed.co.za/2014/05/08/hearts-home-blog-hop-38-family/

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  8. Found you from the Hearts for Home blog hop! What a beautiful family you have! Hannah is so beautiful, and you are all so blessed to have found each other. I'm sure you will have lots to share and discuss with Hannah as she gets older and has more questions, but God will provide the answers she needs. God bless!

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