Happy Gotcha Day Riley!!

Five years ago today, Mike and I stood in a court room in Siberia, Russia and heard the wonderful news that we were officially the parents of a beautiful 9 month old baby girl. I thank God for that day and for the precious miracle that is my daughter. I can't believe it's been 5 years already. Boy, does time fly. I never really understood the depth of that statement until I became a mother. Now I wish I could slow the clock down just a little bit. Here at the Wohler house we make a big deal out of Gotcha Day but this year is the first year I think Riley really got it. And boy was she excited. We let her pick her activites for Saturday and she wanted her cousins Jaci and John Daniel to come over to spend the night and go eat chips and cheese (Mexican food) and go play miniature golf. Every day she would ask me, "Mommy, what is the day of today (meaning what's the date)" and then she would count how many days until her Gotcha Day. We ordered a cookie cake to take in for her class that says Happy Gotcha Day Riley and has the Russian flag on it. She took in a bag of things we brought back from Siberia and shared them with the class. My heart was so full I thought it might burst. She was so proud and I always want her to feel that way. To know that we are so very thankful that God chose us to be her parents and how truly precious she is to us. I never want her to feel that adoption is a bad thing and I often tell her "her story" about how God had a plan to fill our aching hearts with a baby and how special it is that God chose her to be that one. Sometimes when I look back on her whole adoption I am overwhelmed with how evident it was that it was God's plan. Sometimes (ok alot of times) I try to force Jamie's plan but in this instance God was truly leading the way. When Riley asks me questions about adoption (they are coming more frequently the older she gets)and about her birth mother I try to tell her that all families are unique and special, and ours especially so since God chose to fill the heart of a woman in Rincon, Georgia with a baby girl that was given up by a brave woman in Siberia Russia. How awesome is that? I like to tell her that adoption has always been part of God's plan as we are adopted into God's family as His children. I know the older she gets the harder the questions will get and maybe she won't always think of Gotcha Day as the cool thing she thought of today but I am so very thankful and blessed to walk this road with her and that God brought her to Mike and I on a winter day in March in a courtroom in Siberia, Russia.