Three

It is so hard to believe that my tiny Ethiopian Princess is growing up so fast.  And boy is she a Princess!  Everything pink for her please!  We had a huge birthday celebration, even tho I am desperately trying to scale down birthday celebrations in our family.  Both grandmothers were here and so was my brother.

Marley's birthday, ironically, fell on Mother's Day this year.  I very vividly remember Mother's Day of 2009.  At that point, our adoption journey had been over 3 years.  We started trying to adopt through Foster Care, and eventually joined the international adoption community hoping to adopt from Ethiopia.  Our paperwork had been in Ethiopia for 10 months.  Looking back, that wasn't that bad, but we were told it would be just a few months.

We went to church on Mother's Day.  The pastor asked for all the mothers to stand and everyone applauded.  I crouched down in my chair and pouted. No balled!  I was already a mother to the most amazing little boy ever.  But my heart hurt for the little girl that I knew was out there, and at the time the Ethiopian adoption program was starting to look like it was going to close to U.S. adoptions.  I thought I was going unnoticed, until another adoptive mother nudged me from behind and told me to stand up…I was a mother.  I reluctantly stood, and then quickly returned to my pouting.

When reading my blog posts from that time, I am so thankful to not be there anymore.  Oh my goodness!  But there is another part to this story!

Marley, my sweet Marley Haset, was mine.  While the circumstances of her coming to me were not ideal, she was still always meant to be mine.  I carried her in my heart, I prayed for her and her birth family.  The Lord prepared me for her arrival, in an amazing adoptive mommy way.  He gave me a dream!  Her birth mother labored, and delivered her.  I admire that.  He also gave her a dream.  A dream of something better for her tiny one…life.

What a Mother's Day gift, then, now and always.  Marley's birth will always be celebrated in our home, as will Mother's day.  How amazing is that?!  I get to celebrate the birth of my daughter, being a mother and celebrating the mother that gave me my daughter all in one day!  I am blessed!