Lila's Year Anniversary

Today at 5:00PM it will have been 1 year since we layed eyes on our wonderful Lila. We pulled up at he Civil Affairs office in Xian, China on June 29, 2008 to unite with our daughter. On the cab ride over felt like dream. I was in China picking up my third child.... is this really happening????? When we arrived I noticed a car with the window half way down and inside a little girl sleeping ... I knew that was Lila. We went inside and watched the other parents recieve their children and wondered why my daughter was still sweating out some zzz's in a hot car??? Finally I see her nanny open the door and walk in with little Dang Ai Ling. Groggy and sweaty she just showed no emition at all. Scott and I just stared at her and kept saying out loud "She is so beautiful". The nanny tried to convince her that we were her parents but that was no easy task. She crept over and relieved me of her new sippy cup I brought and backed away. She had no idea how to get the water out but just liked to hold it for comfort. Time passed and the paperwork was complete and we were set to take our new daughter in a cab and back to the hotel. Sounds easy right..... not so easy for Lila. The poor thing cried and scream as we sprinted to the cab I was worried that all the staring eyes would think I was stealing this little girl. My heart broke for her but we made it to the hotel. She refused to take any of her dirty not so genlty used clothes or the little boys striped navy sandles off. She just cried, a broken cry, one you don't only see but feel. It was all over when we took our shoes off then she knew we weren't going anywhere soon. Lila picked up my shoes and brought then to me to put back on and walked me to the door. Oh Lord what have we done???? kept circling in my mind. I want my boys and I want to go home!!!!She was in need of a bath but refused to take her soilded clothes off. I had an idea... I brought out some of her new clothes and one adorable pair of chunky sandels with red flowers& a bow on them and that is all it took. She quickly kicked off her manly shoes and slipped the girly sandels on ( which were about 4 sizes too big not so accurate measurments) and got into the bath tub. She played in there for what seemed like a hour but what ever it took to see her happy and stop the tears was worth it. I called it "Tub Therapy" and she had atleast 2 sessions a day while in China!!! While think back of those first few days with her and the stress we all went through it was really nothing a distant memory that is almost comical now. Lila has completed our family and our hearts. We will never forget the journey to reach her and will be forever grateful for the journey ahead.