Maddie's First Birthday!

Today is Maddie's first Birthday!

I cannot believe how the time has gone so fast! It was just so recently that I received her referral on New Years Eve and saw my dauhter's face for the first time- a tiny little 7 1/2 month old girl with big eyes and a sad face...

Now she is already turning 1 and I head back to work in 2 short weeks. She is growing so fast and getting so big! She is just days away (we think) from taking steps on her own- She is sporting 1 almost full tooth and the ridge of a second one, and she is the joy of our lives! She loves her Mama and Baba and seems to be attaching very well. It's definitely something we put a very conscious effort into, and we see the progress very clearly when other people are around!

I have a birthday cake in progress for her in the kitchen, and we'll do a small family birthday party tonight, and a birthday party with friends on Saturday.

I've also been thinking a lot about her birthmother this week. I wonder how she is feeling, coming on the birthday of her baby girl. How sad it must be. How sad for her, how sad for Maddie to not be able to know her face, how sad for me to not be able to tell Maddie specific wonderful things about the woman who carried her in her body and helped nurture her for 9 months, and how sad I cannot tell her how wonderful a little girl Maddie is, and how perfectly and amazingly lucky we feel to have become her parents.

We'll celebrate birthmother and birthfather day in the fall with the full moon festival- I don't know in what form yet, but we will make a special celebration all our own for our family to celebrate the woman who gave life to our daughter and the man who helped create it .