Thankful

As we quickly approach our One Year Liliana-versary, I've been thinking a lot about the whole journey and I've realized that I have a lot to be thankful for. (duh!)

Obviously, I'm thankful to Lili's birthparents/birthmother.

• I'm thankful that she (or they) chose not to abort her.
• I'm thankful that she chose life for her no matter how difficult, painful and even illegal it may have been.
• I'm thankful that she not only chose to give birth to Lili, but that she chose to place her in a public place where she would be found....and eventually adopted.
• I'm thankful that she purposely went to a place knowing that Lili would be found and taken in by someone. This could've been a very dangerous thing to do. (it's illegal in China to abandon your baby)

I'm thankful to the Chinese government, China Center of Adoption Affairs and everyone else involved in the Chinese International Adoption program/process. Without them opening their doors to the international community, we would not have Lili. period.

I'm thankful to our agency for matching us with Lili.

I'm thankful to Jeff for finally coming around to this whole 'adoption thing' in 2005.

I'm thankful to Brett for opening his heart, his home and his family to a sister.

I'm thankful to all our family and friends for all the prayers and support throughout this journey.

And, most of all, I'm thankful to God for being in total and complete control throughout this whole process (even though I kicked and screamed the whole way!) :)

God knew that this little girl named Mei Xiu Yuan was going to be 'Liliana Laura-Mei'. He knew that this girl on the other side of the world, that until just 17 months ago we didn't even know existed, would be our daughter.

We started this adoption process requesting an 'infant, aged 0-12 months'. NEVER, EVER even considering any child over the age of 12 months. (so much for thinking we 'knew' what we were going to do) :)

When we think about how the whole thing happened, we're amazed.

And thankful.