Birthday Girls!

What a day it will be!! It's my birthday today ~ and our sweet Samara turns TWO today and it's her first birthday home!!!!! I can explain the pure delight in my heart. To wake up to my smiling little sweetheart today and wish each other a Happy Birthday was almost more than my heart could handle. I am so grateful to have her home to celebrate this year. What a difference from last year when I celebrated our birthday but she was a world away and I had no clue when I'd be able to hold her in my arms.

I'm reading this book - http://www.today.com/books/waiting-birth-mothers-quest-meet-her-daughter-2D79627749 - and last night, I ironically read the part where the birth mother has her daughter and then when she leaves the boarding house, without her daughter whom she is relinquishing her rights to. My life has been touched by adoption in many ways at various times. I've been blessed to experience it through so many different angles. So today, not only do I celebrate this wonderful daughter, born from not under my heart but in it. But I also grieve for the mom who does not get to sing to her daughter on this perfect day. I am pained for the mother who does not get to give her daughter a sweet treat to enjoy and know that it's all for her. I hope that, some day, I can have the chance to meet the woman that gave my sweet Samara the gift of life, and who so selflessly decided that she should go to another mommy and daddy who can give her more opportunities in life. What a privilege it is to be her mom, but I pray to meet her first mom some day, as that bond could never be taken away.

Until then, each birthday will be special. I bought her a gift from Ethiopia for her next several birthdays. I can't wait to spoil this little girl who is so deserving of all the love I have to offer!!

Here she is one year ago today - her first birthday... Taken by someone while she was in the orphanage. My how her eyes have softened since then!!

This morning...