To Lily Grace on the eve of Gotcha Day...

It seems surreal to be typing this, but in just over 24 hours your daddy and I will be meeting you for the first time and our adventure together will begin. Tonight will be the last night you sleep in your crib in the orphanage. Tomorrow will be the last morning you wake up to the familiar faces who have cared for you for the first almost 15 months of your life. You will be leaving everything you know and be traveling to an unknown place and given to two people who you have never met.  I can't imagine how scary the day must seem to you. So many new experiences.  So much unfamiliarity and scariness.

But what I hope you feel sooner rather than later is the love and security that we want you to know! We have loved you since we first saw your picture on Good Friday and your daddy looked across the table to me with tears in his eyes and said, "That's our girl!".  I know it may take awhile for you to fully grasp the love we have for you. You are so loved, little one! So many have prayed for you! The Lord knew from the beginning that you would be part of our family and has already been knitting you into the hearts of each of us.  Your sisters are so excited to meet you!  Your grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and so many others are waiting for the day they can meet you too!  You are already apart of our family.

We want to you to know how much Jesus loves you too! He has a beautiful and wonderful plan for your life.  We are so excited to share with you everything He has done to care for you along the way.  His works are miraculous and amazing and we can't wait to see what life has in store for you!  He has already used you to teach us so much about His Grace and provision along our journey to you.  Our trust in Him is so much deeper because of you.  You have already been such a gift and we haven't even met you!

So sleep tight, little one.  It's going to be a wild ride!  We don't even know what we are going to feed you! ;) Tomorrow you will be an orphan no longer.  Tomorrow you will have a momma and daddy and two sisters who can't wait to meet you. Tomorrow, Lily Grace Ya Xuan, is finally the end of our wait and the beginning of a lifetime of love and memories together!