Did You Think?????

....that I wouldn't post TODAY.....of all days.....TODAY!!!!

Hard to believe it but - yes, it has been 1 momentous, glorious, fabulous, outstanding, outrageous, joyous, amazing, fantastic, terrfic, wonderful, incredible..... words cannot capture the amazing first year of being with Julia. It was truly the first year of the rest of my life.

I have never known any greater joy or happiness in my life. Every day, though sometimes challenging, is a wonderful experience with Julia. Of course, that's not to say my life wasn't already pretty pleasant with my amazing husband, but as you know, we had a heck of a couple of sad, dark years with lots of disappointing and life changing events. All of that seems like forever ago (with the exception of losing Julia's grandpa Rich, which will always stay very close in our memory).....what an incredible year.

We celebrated Eric's birthday on Thursday (thanks grandma Nettie for babysitting) and we had a really nice time out as adults. Then we had a "Gotcha Day" party on Saturday with 8 of the 9 Jiangxi families present. The only family left out was the couple from North Carolina, and while they were nice enough, they seemed to sort of travel with the 5 other couples in our travel party that went to a different province. So, all the people we got to know sort of through the "fire" in China were there. Becki and Bill hosted the party so there was Faith and Adam and Brandon (Bill's son from a previous)....Gretchen and Maggie came (with Gretchen's friend Shivonne, Bob stayed home)....Tom & Kate with Jillian, Loreen with Gwen (Dan stayed home), Theresa and Mark with Ava (and grandma Jean and Aunt Nancy - who also travelled to China with us).....Mary Ellen and Mark with Carmelina, Patty & Jim with Abbey (and other children Tia and Kadeem)....and that's it. (Pictured above mom's names first - Back Row: Loreen & Gwen, Mary Ellen & Carmelina, Patty & Abbey, Theresa & Ava, Becki and Faith, Front Row: Kate & Jillian, Gretchen and Maggie, Me & Julia)

It's amazing how big all the girls have gotten. So, I think I have the b-days down....Abbey is July (late like the 20 something)...next is Carmelina on September 10, then Faith on November 1, then Ava and Gwen on Novermber 18, then Julia on November 19, then Maggie on November 29 and then Jillian on December 18. So, they're all very close in age.

I can't even describe how much fun the girls seemed to have. Playing on the swings, dancing, eating, you name it. Although, I will say that Julia still seemed like she could care less if anyone else was around - she was happy just sliding all day.....

Okay, so I took off from work today to spend it as a special day between me and Julia (daddy was invited too....but he has off on Columbus Day with Julia, so he'll have a specidal day then)...besides, if you remember, it took her a week to let him near her so he'll always celebrate a week later :-)

Anyway, I'm getting tired. It was an emotional day - though not nearly as emotional as a year ago. Whew....I just love her so much.