Heavenly Father,
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be a Mommy once again.
Thank you for sending your angels to keep her safe before we became a family, no matter what life threw her way.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for letting me know the giggle of this child. The smiles she gives me every day.
The love she can give me is because of You.
I pray you know this.
Thank you.

Dear First Mother,
Thank you, whoever you are, for choosing life. For the suffering you must have endured. You did not know what her future held as you let her go from your arms, but you must have had hope for her. She is safe. She is happy. She is loved. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for making sure she was healthy before you gave birth to her. She is beautiful. She is smart. She is full of life.
The love she can give me is because of you.
I pray you know this.
Thank you.

Dear A-yi Jia Rong,
Thank you, where ever you are for the care you gave her for the first 16 months of her precious life. Thank you for sneaking her food when lunch was finished. Thank you for keeping her warm in the dead of winter. Thank you for writing a journal for her, and the beautiful picture you drew for her when you knew she was going to be matched with us. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for making her believe you loved her with all your heart. Your love for her was evident in your eyes from the pictures we saw of you with her, as she waited for us. It was in your eyes when we met you. It was in your eyes when I turned to look at you - looking at her, knowing it would be the very last time. We owe you so much.
The love she can give me is also largely because of you.
I pray you know this.
Thank you.

Dear Cadence,
I love you. I’m so very happy to have the opportunity to be your Mommy. I hope you can understand the importance of all of those who came before me. Who love you, who’ve cared for you, who’ve kept your life sacred.
It’s been three years, today, since I first held you in my arms. The moment I met you, I knew my life would be changed, but I really had no idea how significant it would be. A new beginning. A new opportunity to love. A new life, for both of us. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for trusting me to love you. I promise you, I will always give you the best of me. Your love is so pure. You’ve shown me that all things are possible.
The love I feel is because of you.
I pray you know this.
Thank you.

It was our "Gotcha Day"

What a magical day it was.
We were told by our guide the night before, that the girls would be brought in to a certain meeting room at the hotel, at 8 am sharp. So, of course, as expected, we all gathered that morning around 6 am, and after breakfast, we snuck around to that meeting room, hoping for the chance to see the girls brought in, and catch the nannies off guard. Of course that didn't happen. While we were being obviously inconspicuous, the guide came into the meeting room to tell us that they had arrived and were taken to the "real" meeting room.
When we walked in, there was our daughter, sitting in a nanny's lap and looking around. They took her jacket off of her, and called Mama forward. It was all so fast, but it was as if time stood still. All the times I had played that moment in my head, and replayed it. But, nothing I had imagined was as perfect as that moment.

This was the post that Scott made, just a few hours before we met her.

To our sweet Cady
03/19/06 13:41
There are times in my life when I feel an importance to do something. Often times I may not even know what it is that I am supposed to do, but I just have that urge to accomplish something. Right now is one of those times in which I feel the urgency to write this.

I need to leave this message right now.

Right now, it's 5:45 in the morning here in in the city of Hefei, in the province of Anhui, in the country of China.

Right now, Cady, you are probably awake, and someone is fussing with you to get you fed, changed, and happy. You have no idea what is about to happen to you, but I promise that it is something wonderful. It may not feel like immediately, but today you are beginning your new life. The life you were meant to have. The life you deserve.

Daddy is really nervous right now as he types this. He knows that he and Mommy will be saving all of these messages for you so that you can have them always, and you can see the joy that we have shared with our friends. He knows that this message is very important. As you grow, we will share these things together. You will get to see all of the wonderful wishes that everyone from all over the world have offered you. At this moment, people all over this world are happy for us for having you, and happy for you for having us. In about 3 hours, we will be together, and that will be forever.

I want you to know that this moment right now is the most important moment of my life. If we do our jobs right, by the time you are reading this, you will already know how I can tell you this even now before we have ever touched, held hands, or held on to each other "oh so tight".

I love you.
-Daddy
**********************************************************

It's now been two years since we've embarked on this journey with Cadence. We are still extremely grateful for the opportunity to love and cherish her, more than words can express. Not a day goes by that we do not feel blessed by God for the time we've been given, to share with her.

Below is a link to the first video we created, capturing Gotcha Day and all it's bliss. My heart still skips a few beats every time I watch it.

Our Gotcha Video

I hope you enjoy it too.

Gotcha Day, March 20, 2006.



This picture was taken only minutes before we met her.
We will be forever grateful to Cathy (someone we had met just the night earlier), for getting out of her taxi as she was leaving the hotel, because she noticed the children being rushed in to the hotel lobby. She was able to give us such a treasured gift in this picture.
It seems like forever-ago. But the day will always be etched in my mind, and so near to my heart, that it also seems like just yesterday.
Our sweet baby girl.


Scott updated his iMovies application for Apple, and used our Gotcha Day video to experiment with. The video can be viewed much bigger now. I thought I would showcase it here for anyone that had not seen it before. It still brings tears to my eyes.

Gotcha Day revisited.

If you're unable to view the link above,
you will need to download Quicktime from here:

Quicktime 7 - download
It's a free and easy download which works on both Mac's and PC's