Where has the time gone??

I cannot believe it has been three years since Chris and I walked out of ESWS, the Korean adoption agency, with our 13 1/2 month old in our arms, suddenly parents.  In one instant.  All of a sudden.  I know, I know, we had been waiting for that moment for so long and had been through so much to get to that point.  But it's one thing to wish for something and something completely different when you're finally living it!  What an incredible, scary, emotional, life-changing day that was for everyone.

We have been blessed these last three years.  Our son is a happy (although he does have his moments!), healthy, well-adjusted little boy.  He is so sweet and has the greatest smile and personality.  I've recently gone back and watched video we took from when we first brought him home.  He was still pretty much a baby, only saying a few words in Korean at the time, hadn't yet learned to walk, and had no clue who these two strange-looking people were that had taken him away from everything familiar to him.  And then I look at the little boy in front of me now, who makes up his own stories, runs around the block, and calls me (me!) Mommy and I think, "How did we get so d@mn lucky?!"  This little one captured my heart in a picture when he was just 5 1/2 months old, had me wrapped around his little finger the day we met him eight months later, and to this day only has to grin at me and say "pwease, Mama, pwease, oh pwease!" and I melt.  Just. Melt.

We were able to meet Boo once before our Gotcha Day and I remember pacing around our hotel suite feeling nauseous and commenting to Chris that I thought I was going to throw up.  The nerves and the excitement about finally getting to lay eyes and hands on our precious little boy was really playing havoc with me.  And when it came down to finally meeting him, I stayed behind the camera and let Chris hold him and cuddle him first while I drank in the sight of my husband with our child...something I had been waiting for and wanting to see for six years.  It was kind of surreal; I couldn't believe this dream of ours was finally being played out before my very eyes.  It was not the way we had originally envisioned welcoming our child into our world, but it is now one of my favorite days ever.  Ever.  It is so precious and brings joy to me every time I think about it or watch the videos of father and son meeting for the first time.

And he's growing up so fast!  I want to tell him to slow down, but I also can't wait to see what the future holds for him.  At times, it feels like there was never a time we didn't know him or love him.  But I also still distinctly remember exact moments of our journey like it was just yesterday: the Travel Call I received while I was at work; the panic of trying to get a last-minute hotel room in a foreign country; filling out ONE piece of paper at the Korean adoption agency (after the piles of paperwork we had completed up to that point, that was a bit anticlimactic!); seeing Boo for the first time; being prayed over by Dr. Kim at our last meeting; saying good-bye to his foster mother and climbing into the van that took us back to our hotel; getting on our plane the next morning and finally having those plane doors close, which is the point in time when you know no one can take that child from you; sending Chris to the airplane bathroom with our new son to change a dirty diaper for the first time (it was his turn.  love you, Honey!); saying good-bye to new friends as we parted ways with our new sons in Chicago; getting off the plane in our hometown and walking into the congratulatory arms of friends and family...with our son.  And that's just scratching the surface.  There is a lot that's indelibly imprinted in my mind from that trip and it doesn't seem like it's been three years already since we became a family of three.  I know I will always remember and cherish the amazing experiences we had while in Korea.

Happy Gotcha Day/Family Day, my sweet sweet boy!  I love you, forever and ever and always.

Love, Mommy