Six years ago the world became a better place.

Because on that day a beautiful little girl was born somewhere in China.We do not know where, we do not know the time. We do know that on SS's birthday our dossier had been logged in China for fourteen months and nine days.  Not that we were keeping track or anything.  We were eagerly awaiting our little girl, our precious baby. SS did not know that her time in China was going to be short lived, one week shy of sixteen months in a SWI, then thirteen days running all over two cities. Our baby had no way of knowing that her forever home was a fourteen hour flight, plus five hour drive away. SS did not know that she was connected to a forever Mama and Baba.

On that day we were ignorant of the blessing we had just received.  We had no idea our little girl was born. We did not know how after her first breaths, she struggled to survive. We did not know that we had a beautiful, kind, intelligent, future super hero loving, future music enthusiast, future funny as hell daughter. Hard to believe but we never got past the wanting a daughter stage. It seemed greedy to make a list of qualities we wanted on a child. We knew how fortunate we were to have the privilege to bring a child home. We did not want to mess things up by asking for more.

The three of us did not know that months later someone would make the decision to choose SS for international adoption. That months after that a clerk at the China Center for Adoptions Affairs would look at our file, our pictures, SS's file and picture, and decide we would be a forever family. We did not know what joy laid ahead for us as parents.  We did not know the emotional toll that bringing SS home would take on our girl.

It's very difficult to believe our baby is six, because we are certain we brought SS home just a while ago.  The past two weeks have made us even more proud of our SS. While still reeling from her tooth knocking collision, we made the blunder of getting her into another traumatic experience. Yet she remains as loving as ever.

Happy sixth birthday SS, you are no longer our baby, no longer our toddler.  You are now a big girl. We are looking forward to the many changes you'll experience with each passing birthday. But no matter how many birthdays go by, you will always be our ladybug dress clad baby.