In Our Arms Forever Day!

As an adoptive family we get to celebrate things like "Referral Day", "Court Date", and the most wonderful of them all, "In Our Arms Forever day". I will never forget the details of the journey, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It was here in this lovely city that there a toddler boy who was waiting to steal our hearts. When we arrived at the hotel it was late at night so we would be meeting our son in the morning. Knowing that he was right next door and we would be holding him within hours was such a great feeling. Then the next morning arrived, we ate breakfast with other couples from our agency then walked over to meet our children together. Tom and I were the first ones to meet our son and with pounding hearts and tear filled eyes, we watched our little man walk down the stairs with one of his nannies, to be with us forever. What an amazing feeling when we reached out to touch his little scared hand that first time, looking into his eyes and falling completely head over heels in love. As we stroked his head and kissed his cheeks and held him in our arms it felt surreal. We finally had the son that God was leading us to. We squeezed him close in ah that this is our son, that God chose for us. He was ours, we finally had him.

The first day was hard for Caleb, but after about an hour of crying he slowly warmed up to us and then crawled in my lap and fell fast asleep. I will never forget that feeling I felt that day of him sleeping in my arms. What a fabulous first day we had with our son.

Those days that followed were magical. We have watched him grow from a unenthusiastic, shy, timid little boy to a grown up little man full of life and love. We have spent the last 12 months toting him around so prideful we could burst. Proud of our beautiful, intelligent son, brother...proud to be his family.

We are thankful today for the opportunity to have this special gift from God as our son and brother. We never knew what an amazing journey this would be. Making this journey with him has made life very entertaining to say the least! I know each day that God's plans are perfect. Our family has grown in the way God planned. I am just so grateful that His plan included letting Caleb be with us. Today is a reflection over how miraculous it is that this little boy was born on the other side of the world and now has a place in our family.

Here's to one year together!

Sorry I was going to post pictures but forgot my husband has the cord with him on a mission trip so you will have to check later when he returns for the pictures of our year together.