What a difference a year makes!

August 18, 2006.

Here in the US: Oblivious to the knowledge that Lian Bao Zhen existed, I was wrapped up in all the "redos" for our adoption paperwork. (See this post). Luckily I was flying to Baltimore for the weekend (a much needed diversion) to attend the dedication service of one of my cousin's little girls. Ella was such a darling at 6 months and I spent time that weekend wondering if my future daughter was even born yet.

Across the sea: Earlier in the week a 5 month old baby girl had a physical to make sure she was as healthy as she appeared. After getting a clean bill of health she had her picture taken on the 18th for her dossier. That dossier would soon be sent to the matching room of the CCAA in Beijing to await assignment (the match may have been made by Chinese officials here on Earth, but it is so very obvious that our Heavenly Father had His mighty hand in on it!) with a loving family.

It would still be 3 1/2 months before the match of Lian Bao Zhen & Ian and Kristi was made known to our adoption agency and us, but August 18th was the day that produced the two photos that captured our hearts when we first saw them on December 1st! I long for more pictures of her when she was even younger, but I treasure the ones we have. Even if I lost these two (next to impossible, we have copies all over the house in frames, on our computers, on CDs, and the originals are locked in our fire safe ~ hey, you've got to protect the little you have, right?), they are eternally etched in my mind! (They were all I had for the 9 1/2 weeks between the time we first saw her and the time we first held her). It was honestly love at first sight!

My how a year has changed our little one...

The same and yet a totally different little girl! The uncertainty is gone and she sure has learned how to work a camera in this year.

We couldn't quite recreate this one ~ Kylie likes to run where ever she goes these days! Crawling is WAAAAYYYY to slow!

We also had the treat today to spend some time with one of Kylie's Lianjiang "sisters!" I need to get Darby's mom to email me a picture of both families together, so there is a technical delay before the play date is journaled.