Our Hannah Cate is 2

I'm not quite sure anyone knew just how much Hannah Cate would change us, how much she would allow us to see the glory of Christ. I'm not quite sure we ever knew that by adding a little bit of pink in our blue world that we would become a little softer, a little more tender in our love.

Today we celebrate her. Her who is here with us now, sleeping down the hall but was not for 18 months. Her who lived a life an oceans away from the moment she took her first breath until she was placed in my arms forever on a July night last year. Her who was born to poverty and nothing to her name but now has all the essentials and more that a young little girl needs in life. Her: our daughter, chosen by God to become a part of OUR family.

The whole thing...Hannah Cate, our daughter, their "sassy", their granddaughter, their niece...it's a miracle, ya'll. 6 months home and I still sit back in wonder of it all...

She is
                      sparkle
She is
                      sass
She is
                      sugar
She is
                      special.
She is
                      something else.

She is 2 today and we celebrate her. 

Our first picture we have together when I met her for the first time on the left {July 2011} and one of my very favorites from our fall session with Arlyne VanHook {November 2012}

I think of the day or night she was born. I think of her birth mother.

And I thank her.
Silently, prayerfully.
I thank her.
For if not for her, this angel would not be mine.

photos by Arlyne VanHook Photography

And can I tell you a little more about our story? Our story to her?

Would you believe me if I told you that it was around the time she was born that my Baylor was 10 months old and would not sleep through the night? Didn't sleep through the night until a year old. I would go into his room when he would wake up and I would rock him and give him a bottle. As I did, I would have Ethiopia on my mind. We had decided to go on the mission trip just a few weeks before so the unknown of going on that trip was at the forefront of my mind. And I though, oh how I thought on those nights, that maybe, just maybe God was using our upcoming trip for something big. Something so, so big. And I would think about what I would find there, what I could do there. And it was on those nights that I am 99.9% sure that Hannah Cate was just a mere days old. Days old, ya'll. The way He works is so beautiful. When she was probably up crying, wanting to eat, I was up too.

She is 2 today and we celebrate her. 

We celebrate who she was and who she is and who she is going to be. 

Happy birthday, princess. 

photos by Arlyne VanHook Photography

You are dearly loved and highly favored!