Today we became a family of four

My dear sweet Fu Mei,

How brave you are, my love...I know this is all so scary for you. I can see and feel your fear. It breaks my heart to hear you cry out "MaMa" for all that you have known and lost, but I am so proud of you. I already admire your strength, sweetheart. One day doll, you will feel happiness again. You are so loved by so many and I am so proud to be your mom.

This morning when I had to wake you up for breakfast before our appointment at the Civil Affairs Department building, you remembered how frightened you were and I felt the deepest pain in my heart. As I promised, we will just take one minute at a time and slowly but surely, you will come to trust that I will be here for you forever and always. At breakfast, you finally relaxed enough to stop pushing my hand away with food. And once that first bite of congee went in, things looked a little better, didn't they? We will always take care of you, we promise!

And that was what today was about. Today, when we returned to the place where we first met just 24 hours ago, I was humbled and privileged to publicly declare our intentions to be your forever family. It was my honor to meet your orphanage director and to tell her how wonderful you are and how happy you have made us all. I thanked her for the wonderful care you have received and more importantly, for the immeasurable gift of being your mom. She told us that she was pleased to see you with such a wonderful family which filled me with such a sense of relief and pleasure...I really wanted her to know we will show you the most wonderful life - that we will always love you. And have already loved you for so long.

So sweetie, as you struggle to make sense of this crazy day and the days to come, I pray you will begin to feel that you are safe and loved. We saw a beautiful glimpse of that spirit born in you. You absolutely thrilled us when you gave kisses to Julee on your own. It finally was the moment I have been dreaming of....to see you with my first precious gift.

Today was a huge day. And the wait for you was worth every second of every minute of every day of every year we waited for you to come into our lives. And Dad, thank you for watching over her til I got here. You did great!!! You were right, she is perfect!

Love,
Your forever mommy



We are beginning to see smiles....


One happy day...


Albee's girls....