The Journey Began...

It was December 7, 2006 and the emotions were high as Mom, Dad, Will, and I woke up in the morning. It was a cold, December morning and we excitedly threw on clothes and carried our suitcases into the brisk, December cold. We were picked up by our dear, sweet neighbor, who took us to the airport... I have vivid memories of sitting in the airport, eating Starbucks and waiting for our plane to Newark. I remember talking about our sweet girl, who was going to be in our arms in just four days. The day was full of excitement. It was one we had been longing for and praying about for a long time. Finally, our row was called and we boarded the flight to Newark, where we met up with some other families in our group and awaited our rows to be called to board the long flight... the one to Beijing. At last it was time. As we boarded the plane which would be our "home" for the next 14 hours, we began the real journey... The journey that has changed my life in SO many ways. The journey that brought our sweet AnnaClaire Chenhui to us and eventually led us on the journey to Kate. I was in 8th grade at the time, the youngest sister my whole life... and here I was heading to China with my family to adopt sweet AnnaClaire, who was only 13 months old. Never in the world did I imagine that I would become a big sister at 13! Yet here we were, going to China. We were on our way to China for our amazing little Booie, the joy of my life!

Two years ago today, we were on our way to China for the first time. At the time, little did we know that 2 years later, we would have arrived home from China for the second time just over a month ago.

This day will forever be engraved in my memory. We had been staring at pictures of our sweet girl for 5 months and the day had finally come to go get her. My life would never be the same...