SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR

First, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all the mommy's out there!! My first official mothers day was wonderful! Bob, Owen and I spent the weekend in PA with my mom. As always Owen had a great time there and didn't want to leave! For mothers day Owen gave me (o.k. with the help of daddy) a keychain that is a digital photo album so I can hold all my great photos of our boy! Of course it will be very hard to pick just 50 photos that I love but I will do my best. LOL

I say it is my first offical mothers day because last year on May 9th we saw our littles boys face for the first time. It was the Wednesday before Mothers Day!

I can remember the phone call I received from our coordinator like it was yesterday! She called me at work on Tuesday May 8th at 2:30 p.m.! I remember when my co-worker came to find me and said you have a phone call from your coordinator I almost passed out. I couldn't imagine why she was calling, the first thing that came into my mind was that we were being questioned in the review room. Instead she said "I think I have your son" I didn't know what to say, she even asked if I was still there. She had three boys files available, all had cleft lip/cleft palate the only difference was their ages. There was a 12 month old, a 17 month old and a 24 month old. We could only review one file at a time and we needed to make a decision on which one we wanted to review. I immediatly called Bob at work and told him. I said what do you want to do? He of course said YES!!! We decided on the 17 month old, for no other reason then his age was exactly what we were looking for. I called our coordinator right back and told her that we would be in to review the file. We made an appointment for the next day at 5:30 p.m.! That was the longest 24 hours of my life.

We went through his medical file first before seeing any pictures, then she showed us his face!!! I could only cry. He was perfect, he was our son. I can't explain the feeling, it is every emotion you can ever feel and feeling them all at once. I just stared at him, I couldn't stop staring at his eyes. We knew that we would be bringing Fu Qiao home, but went through the motions of having doctors review his file.

There were some family members that didn't think we were doing the right thing and expressed concern over excepting a child with a special need, I am VERY THANKFUL that we didn't listen to them, that Bob and I went with our heart. Because I can not imagine my life without him, he is everything I had hoped for and everything that I didn't know I was missing. Anyone that is a part of his life see's what a wonderful child he is, how he has overcome every obstacle given to him, and has done it with so much love.

I have so much to be thankful for, a beautiful baby and a great husband! LIFE IS GOOD.

I've attached the first pictures we have!