GOTCHA DAY!!!!!

We can hardly believe that the day has already come..... Our first "Gotcha Day" as a forever family. It has been exactly one year today that we picked up Alyssa at the baby home in Sosnovoborsk, Krasnoyarsk Russia. We had left for the orphanage at about 4:30 in the afternoon on November 21, 2008. We were so excited and nervous all rolled up into one. The 45 minute drive seemed to take forever. We tried to soak up everything that we could on that last journey to the orphanage. We took a video for most of the trip so that we would not forget the ride. When we arrived, they had Alyssa in the room ready for us to change her into the clothes that we had brought with us. She had this "lost" look in her eyes. She had no idea what was happening. For all of you adoptive parents out there, you know what I am talking about. We took a few pictures before we left and then out into the sub zero temperatures we went. It was dark and cold when we left. The streets were a solid sheet of ice. When we started out on our drive, we found out quite quickly that Alyssa did not like the lights of the oncoming traffic. She screamed and cried. The only thing that I could think of to do was to sing to her. Me, not being a very good singer, I sung very low so as not to drive our driver Sergei crazy. I sang Jingle Bells for the full 45 minutes back to the hotel. It worked!!! She fell asleep for most of the trip, so I guess she enjoyed my singing.... HA HA HA !!!!
That day changed our lives forever. To see this child today you would have never guessed that she has been through such trauma.
Today as we look back at our amazing journey, we decided that we would spend the whole day together doing "fun" things. One thing that we did was attend an adoption celebration at a local church that was celebrating National Adoption Day. It is pretty cool to think that this day fell on our "Gotcha Day". We went there and visited with other families that had brought their children home from Russia this past year or two. We exchanged names and phone numbers so that our children could have a connection from their homeland of Russia. We also learned what we will need to do to readopt Alyssa in Tennessee next November!!! We really look forward to that day also!!!! Later in the afternoon we headed to Pigeon Forge to go to Dollywood. They are all decorated for Christmas and Alyssa really loved all of the lights. She also really loved the light parade which had Santa included in it. She rode her favorite rides, the ducks, the bees, the pigs and the train. She had hot chocolate for the very first time also. It was a HIT!!! This girl loves chocolate!!! We had a very fun and exhausting day, but it was such a wonderful day. The LORD has so blessed our family. We thank HIM every day for bringing this child into our hearts and our family. She makes every day a joy, and we are very humbled by the fact that the LORD chose Wade and I to be her parents. For those of you out there who are considering adoption, your life will never be the same. There are not enough words to express all of the emotions that you will experience in the journey of adoption. The highest of highs, and the lowest of lows. But what you may think of as the end of our journey, we feel that our journey has just begun. The journey of "forever"!!! We love this child with all that we are, and we feel such gratitude for the whole journey........
Thanks for stopping by.....
Love, Julie