A Mother's Point of View

Tonight our fifth child comes home.

I thought I would write a post to express my joy in being a mother to another child. I feel so privileged to have been blessed with Julianna in my life. Although Ted has kept this blog, I also wrote my own journal... I NEVER want to forget the glory of so many moments, both beautiful and heartbreaking. The joy I feel when I hear Julianna call me "mommy" and Ted "poppy" or the way she says, "I'm so happy I have family," is truly unexplainable. Every time we moved one step further in the process, you could tell she was truly relieved. Her biggest fear was that something would go wrong and we would be forced to leave her (not a chance).

Our daughter has a lot to discover in this world. Simple things, like windows being controlled by a button, was quite the novelty. Unfortunately for our sweet girl, life has never been easy, both before and after being in the orphanage. She has lived in the internat for 8 years of her life. In a village with nothing. Her life experiences have been small.

We cannot wait until she's home tonight. Finally, she will see what endless love means, what being a family means, and what forever means. She has so much to learn but we are so anxious to teach her and provide her with amazing life experiences.

I want to thank everyone for their endless support. Especially my daycare parents for their understanding and our entire family for accepting our new family member as one of us.

I have always known this is something I needed to do. Some people climb mountains or jump out of planes, but I feel my time in Ukraine has fulfilled all my goals. I will forever be grateful.