Today was THE day.

As our plane left DFW airport this morning, it finally hit me...  I am getting a SON!!  I was overwhelmed with emotion.  Shock, amazement, deep joy, a heart full of thanksgiving.  So many feelings came together at once, and I felt a big lump in my throat. Wow, our dreams of adding to our family are finally coming true!

I begin this blog at a point where so much of our path to adopt again has already been travelled.  We are in Chicago, and tomorrow we fly to China!  Monday, October 24, we meet our son and Annie’s brother-- Charlie John JunXian Griffin!!   Words cannot describe our excitement!  We are so giddy at times we can hardly stand ourselves.  :)

A miracle, that’s what all children are.  That’s what adoption is, too.  We sense that miracle with our own sweet babies profoundly each day.  Annie Rose is almost 8, and November 8, we celebrate 7 years together!  On that day in 2004, we became the luckiest people alive.  :)  In 2007 we decided we wanted to adopt again.  Over 3 years, after loss and sadness and several failed attempts, we decided this was not going to happen.  We would never talk about it again, that’s what we thought.  Too much pain and sorrow.  However, in 2010 we saw a video of a little boy in Tianjin, China, and fell in love.  Something magical happened, and though we were very cautious, we felt a tiny spark of hope once more. 

It was September of last year when we got the call.  We were granted permission to adopt this very special boy, we were told Jun Xian could be ours!!!  Each of us was over the moon!  The past 13 months have passed very slowly.  It has been hard to be patient, to understand rules and red tape, to keep the faith and believe we would indeed be his family one day.  We’ve had many frustrations and delays, and there have been terrible moments when it seemed our miracle might not happen.  The wait has been especially hard on Annie at times, so hard for us to explain to her.  Our son is currently 3.5 years old and lives in an orphanage.  He has been told about us since day one, and has also struggled to understand.   But days of doubt are over!

Begin-- it’s my favorite word.  Today was the day; the countdown to our boy is at hand.  The time for our family of four is here at last!  It’s really going to happen!  So please forgive me, but I just gotta say WAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!  My cup runneth over...    

 

More tomorrow, stay tuned!