Happy Birthday Ian!!!

Today our precious son turns 2 years old. It is unbelievable how much you can love someone you've never met. This child has captivated my heart. It is KILLING me to have him half-way around the world and not in my arms. We don't know if he even knew today was any different. I don't know if one of his nannies knew to celebrate his precious 2 years of life today. (China is 12 hours ahead of us, so for him his birthday was happening while we were asleep last night). In China, I've heard that birthdays are not really celebrated... but our boy is certainly celebrated!! Yesterday we went to Sims Lake Park with my friends Melica and Shea and their children and ate birthday cupcakes and sang "happy birthday" to Ian.

If you've read our adoption story, you know it all started one day while I was out shopping and met this beautiful woman.  Melica was a stranger that day that started sharing her story of her amazing girls adopted from China. God used her to plant a seed and now look!!!

 Melica, Lily and Grace.  I love the red teeth and blue teeth! 

Shea with her daughter Stella, and Mae with her red icing. Shea is a dear and wonderful friend to me and we started our friendship many years ago; she was my sorority sister in college.  Now we live 3 minutes away from each other and her sweet Stella is only 1 month older than our baby Jovie. 

 Mae is always over the moon that these two big girls give her so much attention.  Lily let Mae ride her bike (first time on a big bike!!). 

 I am so happy and so sad at the same time. God has blessed us more than I could have ever imagined with THREE children. My arms ache for Ian and Jovie.  I dream about what their personalities are like... are they sweet and silly like Mae, are they reserved, do they have no reservations, how will the three of them play? My heart is filled to the brim. I am in constant struggle to live in the now and not let my focus be elsewhere. I knew God had been showing me that I needed to trust Him with His children and be happy for each day that I have with Mae.  These days that are just her and me... this is our last summer together where it's just the two of us at the table eating our oatmeal together.

We recently went to visit our friend, Sun, at her shop Soho at the Forum. We were so thrilled to share with her our news of our baby girl, Jovie. She is Chinese and we love hearing her insights on the little bit we are given about our children.  We were sharing with her Jovie's Chinese name, Ming Yu, and she went and got a piece of paper and wrote this:

She said this is the word "Ming Tian." Ming is our daughter's name and Tian our son's, and together they make the Chinese word "Ming Tian" = Tomorrow.  At that moment I felt God was reminding me again. "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself." Matthew 6:34

Our children's name actually means tomorrow. (: that is a beautiful picture. 

Tian You, you are so very loved and even though today we are not together, we will continue to celebrate your life for forever. 

Happy birthday to our son and little brother!!