Blessed!

7 Months ago - March 17 '08 - we walked in to MOE and saw our son for the very first time. Sure, it was only a picture (and an old one at that) but the moment I saw this precious little face, I knew...

Before showing us the photo, the MOE representative began reading his social & medical to us. She was reading all of this from a piece of paper in her hands, and "S" from our agency was translating everything. At first I tried to maintain eye contact with the MOE rep. so that she knew I was really listening and interested in what she was telling us. It didn't take long to notice, however, that the sun was shining through the window very brightly making that paper transparent. I could see a backwards reflection of the little boy who would become my son. I got chills and as important as the info was that she was telling us, what I really wanted was to see his photo. When she finally handed it to us, that photo was black & white and very grainy but it didn't matter. That was my son! My little boy!

After telling the MOE representative that yes, we would in fact like to meet this child we crammed ourselves back into the world's tiniest elevator and then into our driver's car. We made our way to the little town about 45 minutes from the center of Moscow. Our driver & translator pointed out this road sign, and told us we had reached the Vidnoye Orphanage (the sign does read "Vidnoye").

The following photos are just a recap of our first meeting. If you've been following our blog for awhile, you've already seen these. If you're a pretty recent reader, Ilya met mommy first:

Then met his daddy:

And ended his day safe & sound in Daddy's arms:

What's so amazing to me about this anniversary - meeting our son 7 months ago today - is that our entire adoption timeframe is the same. We were officially accepted by CSS on October 23, 2007 and Ilya came home on May 31, 2008. A total of 7 months and a few days. Wow!

Unfortunately there are families who started their Russian adoption journeys long before we did, and are still waiting for their referrals, travel dates and/or court dates. I follow the blogs of some of these families and know others through FRUA. I feel for their frustrations and disappointments and I pray for them and their future children each day. I encourage all of you to do the same!

The only "bad" thing about today being October 17 is that I'm now 5 months closer to my next birthday. Phooey!! :-) No birthday celebration will ever come close to the way I spent this year's, so I say they just stop happening and I stay my current 30-something forever!