365 days ago....

Aubri and I had traveled to Beijing, spent a day in Changchun and Siping visiting foster homes, and spent the previous day and part of the night fogged in the Shenyang Airport, managed to run to catch a flight to Shanghai, raced across Shanghai by taxi, slept for 3 hours at the Pudong Airport hotel, rushed through huge crowds to catch a flight to Taiyuan, worried all the way to Taiyuan about what would happen next, met our guide and traveled to the Taiyuan Civil affairs office and then FINALLY we met a wet, tired, scared and angry little Sera!!! It truly was the biggest whirlwind of travel I could ever have imagined possible!! I signed the paperwork saying that I wanted to be her mother, no matter what the nanny said about advising me to wait and see if I liked her since she was sooo "difficult", what ever that meant. It made me angry and I had no intention of not bringing her home, no matter how much she hated me ( which she very definitely did!) . Aubri was overwhelmed with exhaustion and excitement to meet her new little sister, only to be whacked in the head with her water bottle, repeatedly... Thankfully our guide was able to convince Sera to leave with us!

What an emotion filled family we were that day!

Fast forward to today, we are a busy and very happy little family! Sera is full of smiles and cuddles from the moment she wakes up each day. She can be stubborn and get her feelings hurt and wear them on her shirt sleeve a bit, but very quickly lets it roll of and is back to being her happy little self! Even today, when she has a stomach virus and cannot keep a thing down! She is quiet for a while, and then once she has an empty stomach again, she is up and playing and wanting to be cuddled and loved. She is as smart as a whip and learns new concepts so quickly! She loves to sing and dance and is a total little charmer! She mimics everything and keeps her preschool teacher on her toes too! She is talking a mile a minute and makes sure that everyone around her falls in love with her instantly!

I cannot imagine life without her. I cannot imagine not having survived and successfully made that life altering trek to Taiyuan to bring her home. I cannot imagine never having been inside the police stations in Taiyuan and GZ chasing down a new visa and reporting our stolen passports. I cannot imagine having closed my heart to even considering bringing her home when I was first told of her file and asked if I thought she would be OK. All of these things could easily have never worked out the way they did.

I am so grateful for His hand in shaping our lives and cannot wait to see what the next chapter will be, no matter what worries about the future may shade the path as we travel it!! We are truly blessed and I am so happy to be able to look into her sweet little face, receive the best sloppy kiss ever and cuddle her while telling her our story to bring her home.