August 15

 Dear Lillianna,

Today you turn 8.  Oh me.  Eight.  Eight seems like the year of the official...dare I say it...big girl.

But you already are both my baby and my big girl.

You always have been.

Perfectly innocent and quite an old soul at the same time.

At eight years old...

You are curious, cautious, and deeply compassionate.

You love to learn and ask me fantastic questions about the ways of the world every day.

You have always observed the details of nature and amaze me with your ability to remember each detail.

You love animals very, very much right now.

There is no creature too small, too gross, or too strange 

for you to love, to feel sorry for, to want to learn about.

This still includes your jungle, your zoo, your large menagerie of stuffed animals as well.

Oh, how you love them.

You welcome each day with joy and wonder.

I am constantly inspired by your goodness

 and sometimes think, "How does she seem to have life all figured out?"

You desire to be kind, fair, generous, and loving.

You are respectful of rules and don't like being in trouble.

You are considerate of others feelings and try to make everyone feel good.

You are very, very playful.

Many people don't get to see this side of you, at least not right away.

You can still be very shy and love the comfort of home to truly be yourself.

You love to giggle and Ellenie is still the one who can make you laugh the hardest.

Well, Ellenie and the dogs.

Speaking of the dogs, you get in more trouble because of the dogs than anything else.

You love to play with Belle and together so you can make a LOT of mischief.

It drives me bananas but I really do love this silly side of you.

For several years you have mentioned wanting to play the harp.

What?  Did you say harp?  Harp?  Sure honey, the harp.

Those were pretty much the responses from me and your dad.

But this year, at a concert, you said it again and I listened.

We persisted together and found a teacher, a wonderful teacher to teach you harp.

It is such a perfect passion for you and your personality.

Different, special, feminine and beautiful.

I am so proud of you for knowing yourself.

Oh my dear lovie,

If ever there was a wonderful big sister, it is you.

You are extraordinarily patient with your sister.

And all you've ever wanted is for her to be happy.

Which means sometimes you give up what you really want to please her.

It always amazes me and breaks my heart at the same time.

I can't wait to see how incredible you are with your baby brother.

I can't believe you are eight today.

And yet, you are perfectly, wonderfully eight.

You are so perfectly, wonderfully YOU.

I am so proud of you and love you more than you could ever know.

ever.

love,

Mama

LOA

It came.  It really and truly finally came.

We got a call on a Friday that our Letter of Acceptance had been sent

 from China to our agency in Birmingham.

They called the following Tuesday to let us know it had arrived and would be over nighted to us.

We woke up on Wednesday and were SO EXCITED to receive the letter we had been waiting over 4 months for.  We waited and listened for the Fed Ex truck to come.  Near lunch time, we heard it coming down our street and Lillianna and I ran to the window.  Here came the truck towards our house and then...

right past our house.  oh my goodness.

I was not going to wait one. more. day. just because a driver accidentally missed our house.

I yelled," I'll be right back!" and ran out of the house in my flip flops.

Down our long driveway and into the road, I could still hear the rumbly motor of the truck but couldn't see it.

I kept running down our street and up a hill until I could see the truck across another street, in another neighborhood.  I ran like I was in a high school track meet.

He didn't have it!  But he said the next truck, the Express truck would.

Hooray!  We waited some more.

But the truck never came.

So I called, they tracked the package and found out our agency accidentally sent it to Tennessee!

To our old house in Tennessee!

It didn't end there.

The next day it didn't come either.

because Fed Ex accidentally sent it our street address in the wrong city and wrong state!

So finally, 4 days after we were supposed to have it, we did.

Oh me, the journey of this LOA is so representative of our whole adoption journey.

A little wild, a little crazy but all good in the end.

We are just so thankful, so excited, so relieved to be one BIG step closer to James!

Sweet Spot

I'm going to brag.

It has been one of the sweetest summers with my girls.

Super duper sweet.

Full of fun visits, precious moments, lots of laughs, 

hours upon hours of playing,

days upon days of being outside,

and just lots of togetherness.

So much togetherness, that it made me realize

We are in a SWEET SPOT.

These really precious, near-perfect ages where everything 

is still very sweet and innocent, fun and playful

 but not quite so exhausting as those earlier years.

I'm soaking up every moment of this sweet spot.

Now if we could just get their sweet brother home.