Memorial Box Monday: Gotcha!

I knew long before today what I'd write about. Five years ago yesterday, we held our little girl in our arms for the very first time. 

From the moment God called us to adopt, our entire family was consumed with the effort. To raise money, our sons walked dogs, washed cars and pulled weeds for the neighbors. God blessed Rob with a temporary second job - that came to him. He didn't have to look for it. We ate a LOT of peanut butter sandwiches!

Finally, it came. We flew from Beijing to Guangzhou the morning of March 28, 2005. At the hotel, we were herded into a conference room awaiting room assignments. I pulled out my camera to snap a photo of the guys goofing off and my camera wouldn't work. Can you imagine?

Hours away from meeting our daughter, probably the most anticipated day of my life, the shutter wouldn't open. After some panic, yes - I freaked out a bit, Rob and I finally remembered to pray for it. We didn't pray so much as we begged. "God, please... let us get pictures today. Please."

We got our rooms and headed upstairs to freshen up for the big event. It wasn't all that refreshing. We had to gather all the required documents and force down a snack. It's not easy to eat when your stomach is doing flip-flops. I insisted on a final photo of us as a family of four... if the camera would let us. I situated the guys on the couch, set up the camera, sucked in my breath and pushed the on button. Voila! The shutter slid open and we got the shot.

We hurried downstairs to the bus for the drive across town to our little girl. They herded us into the dreary office building, up a couple flights of stairs, and down a hall. We passed Chinese women holding little bundles of love in their arms. Had I just passed her in the hall? My mind filled with thoughts of the moment. Meeting her. Would I recognize her when they carried her in? Would she cry? Was she big? or little? Cuddly?

Then we waited. And waited. And waited. (We really didn't wait too long. It just felt that way.) The dads arranged to videotape for each other so we could catch every precious moment. And then....

The babies arrived.

Thankfully, Ellie was one of the first couple babies they brought in. I did recognize her immediately. She cried. So did I. So did the guys. She was little. Tiny, in fact, and oh so sweet.

We have photos of it all. Thank you, God, for answering our prayer about the camera... With thankfulness, I place a copy of the first photo ever snapped with Ellie into our Memorial Box. The tears came just seconds later... and flowed for quite a while.

Memorial Box Monday started at "A Place Called Simplicity." A friend of mine introduced me to it, and I love it! love it! love it!!! Memorial Box Monday provides an opportunity to remember all the good things God has done. Huge, gigantic things and little things that might seem insignificant. God's word is clear: "Cast every care on Me, for I care for you." (1 Peter 5:7).