Gotcha Day - 12 years later

Twelve years ago today, I was in a tiny room in China, packed with anxious couples and me, waiting for an amazing gift that was going to change all of our lives.  A child.  In a matter of moments, I heard the Chinese name of my daughter called out.  I reached and was given this tiny, chubby faced China girl.  Who from the moment she was placed in my arms, beamed and laughed in delight.  We had been warned that the babies would be afraid of us and would cry when given to these crazy people who didn't look like, sound like, smell like anyone they had ever seen before.  All the 10 other baby girls were screaming and crying.  Not my Anna.  She was chortling with delight.  I was the one who was near tears.  I couldn't believe the gift that was in my arms.  My child.  My child with the fat cheeks, sparse hair on her head, dancing eyes, and the rail thin body.  This was my child.  Fast forward 12 years, and I look at my oldest daughter, with beautiful cheeks, long thick shiny black hair, still with dancing eyes, and a strong body.  Still my Anna.  We celebrate the days I received both my girls in China as almost a second birthday during the year.  They get a small present, I get to relive memories of the past years of our lives. 

I wonder if somewhere in China there are parents who wonder what happened to the baby they brought into the world.  How I wish I could let them know they are safe and loved and cherished.  That my two girls are the greatest gifts I have ever received.  Many people tell me that my girls are so lucky that I adopted them.  I simply reply that I am the lucky one.  I am the one who has been blessed to have two of the most wonderful girls in the world.  So wonderful there is no way that I could have created these unique creatures. 

So 12 years have passed, a blink of an eye at times.  I looked at my two girls getting ready for Halloween and realized that no matter how many gotcha days we celebrate, nothing will compair with that first moment in China when I held my child for the first time and blocked out the rest of the world to feel my heart melt into hers.