GOTCHA!!! 4 years...an honest account...

Today we celebrate 4 years since Haddie Hope Jie was born into our family! I can look back on that day today and laugh, but it was a long road to get to that point.

Let me take you back to that cold December day...
It was freezing, the bus pulled in front of the civil affairs office in Zhengzhou, Henan, China. As all 7 of us unloaded from the bus and headed up the steps of the building I was a bundle of nerves. I was about to meet my daughter that I had longed and pined after for the last 10 months. I wondered out loud if she would like me. My mother in law tried to reassure me. Little did I know that eventually she would, but my journey to bond with her would take a long time.

 We entered the building, and there she was! Of course, she was beaming!

 You can see it in her eyes, she's not too thrilled with me. Just after this photo below, she smacked me in the face.

 Daddy hung the moon from the start...

 Those beginning moments of rejection cut deep into places of my mama heart that I had no idea existed. The pain was almost too much to bear. As we all pushed through those 2 long weeks on China, I felt moments of despair. All I had dreamed and imagined was not the reality I was living.

For those who know me, I am an honest soul. Haddie and I have discussed her journey many times. Even through some of those difficult days when we were getting to know each other, and grow our love. I believe that my fight to grow our bond and love was a battle with the enemy, to hold this exuberant beauty in bondage to a lie that she was unloved and unwanted. There is little in this life I fought harder for.

 ALL GLORY TO GOD...we have fought a fight that has ended VICTORIOUSLY! The enemy is defeated and I love this precious happy soul with my whole heart! She brings new meaning to the word SUNSHINE! I have found few things in life that exude JOY that compares to her.

Her name Hadassah was Queen Esther's Hebrew name. The meaning of Hadassah is myrtle tree. I always thought that was odd, until a year ago. The girls and I were doing a project on the meanings of their names for school. In our research I came across this scripture in Isaiah 55:

¹² 

“For you shall go out in joy

    and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and the hills before you

    shall break forth into singing,

    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

¹³ 

Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;

    instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;

and it shall make a name for the Lord,

    an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

Oh, how I am singing today that the Lord has done a marvelous work and I am blessed to call her MINE! I love you Haddie Hope!!