1 Year Ago Yesterday...

This was my look as I walked into the restaurant and saw my precious child of God. He was the first kid to arrive and beat us to the restaurant. You can see more about this day here.
It was so hard to control myself and not rip my son out of the caretakers arms.

I remember we had to wait, and wait (at least it seemed like for me) for "the moment". Patience is not my best virtue and I so badly wanted to hold little Ty.

The poor little guy had no idea why these people were crying and taking all these pictures. And this crazy lady was once again trying to capture his attention.

...finally in our arms, but so scared.

...we became a family of 3! It was such a surreal day that is hard for us to put into words. We said that Ty was "so good and didn't cry." Looking back at these pictures, our little guy was so scared. Look at his stiff arm, he barely wanted to look us in the eye and he has no idea why this crazy lady kept rubbing his back. Thanks to our travel mates, they were able to capture these pictures.

A Year Ago Today...

Troy admiring Ty at the Chicago airport.

... we left for China to pick up our little Ty. Today has been a very emotional day for me as I reflect about Ty's story this past year, but my heart was also left in China. A friend put it so well. "Amy, it is like you were in labor and you are reliving your experience." I fell in love with the country and its people. I know one day we will go back to pick up our daughter.

I remember waiting at the gate to board our plane in Chicago. There were a few American families in the minority of Asians. You wondered, "Are they going to China to get their child?" We noticed a few had already connected, but we were too shy to join in. We justified our feelings, "Maybe they are with another agency." But we were wrong. We all met up with Helen, our Beijing guide at the airport. We were so exhausted after traveling 24+ hours and couldn't wait to go bed. We went to bed starving, eating only cereal that I had packed for Ty. But we had the best coffee ever that morning at the Holiday Inn Downtown Beijing.