GOTCHA 4 years ago!!!

Wow. 4 years have gone by since we first lay eyes on Molly Shen in Hefei, China. Where has that time gone??? I love her Gotcha day... to me it feels like her birthday. I remember waking up early (you know those early pains of labor?) . We went for a big breakfast and the excitement was in the air. Lots of American families with no Chinese babies... yet all with huge butterflies as "today was the day"... we paced around our room- waiting for the call that they had arrived... Mom and Addie couldn't stand it and snuck down to the hotel lobby with walkie talkies in hand... didn't see her yet... Then the call... quickly get to the 5th floor. We waited, we paced, we tried to not pass out, we made small talk, and then around the corner came the most beautiful little creature in all the world. She was so much tinier than we expected her to be at 18 months old. She was scared to death (she had just been scrubbed clean, bundled up, left the only room she had ever known, and taken her first 2 hour car ride). I'll never forget snugging up to her for the first time. She was absolutely perfect. She latched on and never cried until the nanny took her from me to show me how she could walk (not) and then again when we took off her coat (she had 4 other layers on). Molly came to us at age 18 months- not walking, not talking, not sitting, not chewing, not even rolling over- and absolutely perfect...
Here is a post from China after we got Molly
Here is a post from our 1 year anniversary

Fast forward 4 years and you have the loudest, bossiest, kindergartener you have ever seen. Molly does nothing half way and goes at everything with a stubborn will like none other (a trait I am sure that enabled her to survive that first year and a half in the conditions that she did). She has a huge heart and loves all animals. She is the girliest girl, yet the first one to be hands on for whatever needs to be done. She is confident that she and Addie are twins and that there are no moms in China (don't you know there are no blondes there?). She thinks Noah's feet are perfect even though the poor little hunny doesn't have a little foot (her SN) like her. She lives life completely, sings at the top of her lungs 24/7 and is truely the laughter of our family...

So tonight we celebrate Molly and the miracle that she is... We will eat orange chicken, fried rice, lo mien, and drink Chinese tea ( and Molly will actually eat and not pick). We will watch our beautiful China movie and the video of our first days with Molly. And we will thank God that he chose our family to place Molly in. God truely is a God of miracles...