Think You Can Hold Up?: Happy Birthday, Dear Mary!

Oh, mercy. Today is baby girl's 2nd birthday and I have SO much going on in my brain. I am completely overwhelmed..... like OVERWHELMED.... with thankfulness that she is a part of us. Her laugh is ridiculously cute, her smile is contagious, she is FULL OF JOY. She is an awesome player, mimics everything you do, communicates beautifully through signs and grunts, wakes up so very happy, and gives REALLY tight hugs. She loves playing outside, does the motions to EVERY Raffi song, and can devour a bowl of grits in seconds. She is crazy cute in her footy pajamas, smells delicious after her bath, and truly believes that there are NOT enough rocks in this world. She cuddles with her baby dolls, carries a dish towel around with her most everywhere she goes, eats English peas like they are candy, and puts stickers EVERYWHERE. She has brought SO MUCH to our world..... and I shudder to think how we could have missed out on all of it.

We could have ignored the Lord's nudging. We could have gotten overwhelmed with the process or financial demands and given up. We could have been scared off by fear of the unknown. We could have been satisfied with the easy, happy, settled life we had before. We could have considered ourselves too old to add another child to our family. WE COULD HAVE MISSED IT. In fact.... we DID. Many, many times. But God would not let us go..... He brought us through ALL of that..... and brought us TO this precious child. Mudger says it all the time, and I agree.... "It's like she was meant to be with us." And she was.... sorta.

I say SORTA, cause, in a perfect world, Mary would be with her birth parents in China right now. In a perfect world, there would not be circumstances and rules and poverty in the world that cause people to make choices like this mother and father had to make. Sadly, this isn't a perfect world. BUT.... we serve a perfect God. A God who can take the imperfections of this world and turn it into something beautiful and precious and.... PERFECT.

Cause the Lord KNOWS. He knew that Mary's birthparents would be brave enough to give her LIFE. Two years ago TODAY, the Lord watched our precious Mary enter this world and be held and looked after by a mother and father. He knew that they would be unable to care for her and He knows the reasons why. So, He chose US to be her parents. Just a couple of weeks after Mary was born, the Lord began to stir my heart towards adoption. All through November, December, January.... as Mary was abandoned, taken to the orphanage, then admitted to the hospital in Shanghai for open heart surgery.... my heart was HEAVY. I prayed MUCH. Just as Mary's life was beginning, God was preparing ME to be her Mama. He created a Mary-sized hole in my heart..... that spread to Joe's heart...... and then, He connected a child in an orphanage in Shanghai to a family on the other side of the world. And. We. Fit. Perfectly.

Today has been bittersweet. Bitter because I am sad for her China people. I have wondered all day if they were thinking of her and if they were sad. I have prayed for them all day. At one point today, as I was in the car going to get the boys with Miss Priss watching Raffi in the backseat, it occurred to me - the only reason I'm praying for two strangers that I'll never meet is because of Mary. Joe has prayed for them all day, a few of my friends sent word that THEY were praying for her birth parents today.... all because of Mary. I doubt ANYONE in the WORLD would have devoted a day of prayer to these two souls in China if it hadn't been for Mary. Baby girl is a missionary already!! Joe's Facebook post said it well:

As we celebrate our Mary's second birthday today, all I can think about is how thankful I am her birth parents chose to give her life and and take the chance that she would "have a better life" - those words and her birth date were attached to her clothing as she was left behind in the train station in Shanghai. As happy as I am she is with us I am saying a little prayer for her folks back in China today, too. I'm sure their hearts and minds are heavy. May our little family honor that dream they had for her and raise her as a Godly young woman. Happy Birthday Joodle. Love, Dad.

Today has been SUPER sweet, too! We began the day with a table full of presents, played with them ALL day long, took a good nap, shuttled Jack and Max around to a few places, then ate some take out from Mr. Chen's. Lovely, lovely day. (Of course, the REAL birthday party will be Friday night. Totally excited about that one!)

A few images of today.....

Sweet girl's gonna wake up to some surprises!

My "good morning" face. She wakes up happy EVERY DAY. Happy birthday, you little bed-headed thing you.

Daddy, LOOK! There are presents!

You mean these are all for me? Well, let's get started!

Very intense present-opening concentration.

Favorite present - hands down: the plastic bracelet collection FROM THE DOLLAR TREE.

Max, the expert present-opener, to the rescue!

I'm drinking my juice right now, but I'm about to play with that baby doll you're holding right there.

Birthdays are so much fun!

Jack, did you see all this stuff I got for my birthday?

Wanna stack these blocks with me?

The haul. She has played with IT ALL today. We've matched the animals on the flash cards, stacked the blocks, put stuff in the Hello Kitty purse, peeled off princess stickers and put them EVERYWHERE, cuddled the baby doll and wrapped her up in dish towels, played with the princess figurines, and sorted some shapes. Of course the bracelets didn't make the picture because someone hasn't taken them off ALL DAY.

Even Jack and Max got a little happy today. Max got two new Duck Dynasty books - one about Phil and one about Si.

Jack's been anticipating the release of this bad boy for MONTHS. It came out today! Happy!

After playing ALL day and then going to football and orchestra rehearsals with big brothers, we finally sit down to dinner. The mouth says, "I'm happy!" The eyes say, "But I'm getting sleepy...."