Monday, October 11, 2010

Gotcha Day

Today is Olivia's 9th Gotcha Day.

In other words, nine years ago I brought our daughter Olivia home from the orphanage.

Talk about a life changing event.

Talk about a surprise baby.

We'd been in China for two months.

And my husband was away at school camp.

I went to the orphanage where I volunteered and asked the director if they would consider letting me foster care for six-week-old Li Juan because she was losing weight and the baby room was overloaded.

Next thing I knew, the helpers in the baby room were changing her into a disposable diaper and wrapping her in a blanket. That same day I was riding home in a friend's van with a baby!

When Aaron came home from camp, I said, "SURPRISE!"

That was nine years ago.

6.5 years of foster care + 2.5 years of post adoption = We are beyond Blessed!

20 comments:

  1. what a beautiful little girl! Such joy in those eyes :)

    www.damselinadirtydress.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. How wonderful, Amy. I love that you call it Gotcha Day. We always celebrated my and my little sister's Gotcha Days, but we never called them by such an awesome name:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Happy Gotcha Day Olivia!! Mine's coming soon too! November 17th!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy Gotcha Day, Olivia!

    You have such a lovely family, Amy!

    ReplyDelete
  5. She's so beautiful. What a blessing to your family, and I'm sure the reverse is true. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh Amy, she is such a beautiful girl. I love how you incorporated the letters Li into her name, like bringing her heritage along.
    But I shudder to think what would have become of her if you hadn't stepped in.

    ReplyDelete
  7. YAY! Hooray for 'Liv and a wonderful parents. God has to be smiling over this story.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hooray for you and your family! She's absolutely lovely. Her eyes say so much! You are very lucky, and so is she.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Congratulations! Gotcha Days are awesome, and your daughter is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a wonderful day! Thank you for sharing it with us...You should SOOOOO put it into a pb format...Beautiful story!

    Happy Gotcha Day to Olivia!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Feliz cumpleanos Olivia!!!!I send you applauses, hugs and kisses from Miami....

    ReplyDelete
  13. So incredible. Happy special day to you, Olivia! :o)

    Thanks for sharing that sweet story, Amy. My heart is warmed. :o)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thanks, everyone, for all your sweet comments. Our story with Olivia is one of the hardest, but most rewarding experiences of our lives. Thanks for reading and for celebrating with us!

    Amy

    ReplyDelete
  15. How can it be that we all are so blessed? Happy Gotcha Day!
    Linda

    (Some of our love gals story at my Prone to Wander blog posting "Daughters of the King").

    ReplyDelete
  16. Dang. This post made me cry. Thanks for sharing, Amy.

    ReplyDelete

Summer Recap

Summer!! has been a crazy whirlwind.  Are we actually starting school again in a few weeks? UNBELIEVEABLE. In the middle of June I finished...