One Year Anniversary of Gotcha Day

Gotcha Day Anniversary!!

One year ago today…

I cannot believe that I met my beautiful girl just one year ago today. Sometimes it seems like it has been longer and then other times I am amazed by how quickly the time has flown. When I was handed Molly, nothing seemed real. After the anxiety that built up over the wait, I could not believe that I was being handed this beautiful baby. It was weird, but I didn’t feel like it was real – I didn’t feel like a mother yet. Now I do! I’m not sure when I felt different, but now can’t remember when I didn’t feel like Molly’s mommy. My favorite time of the day now is walking into daycare and getting a huge smile and the biggest hug you could imagine! My patience has increased dramatically – I’m not sure I would have found a baby who had taken her diaper off and peed all over her crib as funny a year ago as I did last week! I’ve learned how to make dinner in less than 3 minutes and I’ve learned sitting watching Baby Einstein with Molly curled up in my lap is a great way to spend my evenings! Looking at the clothing and shoes that she has grown out of makes me cry and watching her make a mess eating her dinner makes me laugh! She has taken over all aspects of my life (although I do hope to one day have enough energy to date again – keep your fingers crossed that there are some nice, eligible men in TX!)

There is a lot of controversy over calling the day you meet your child “Gotcha Day.” This term has never bothered me because I associate it with one of the best days of my life. It is the day that I “got” Molly and the day she “got” me. Other people cringe when they hear someone say that an adopted child is “lucky.” Sometimes even me, especially when I feel that someone is implying that my act was selfless (it was not). Is Molly lucky? She was not lucky to be abandoned by her birthparents in China. She was not lucky to be born into a society where baby girls aren’t valued. She was not lucky that she was born into poverty. But she was lucky that her birthparents left her in a place where she was found (many other children sadly aren’t that “lucky”). She was lucky to be brought to a facility where she was well cared for. She was lucky that she was made available for adoption. And yes, she was lucky I adopted her. Could another family have cared for her and loved her like I do, probably. But I am lucky that I was fortunate enough to be chosen to be her mommy. We are both lucky in our own ways. Call it fate or call it luck (or destiny, or any other term you want), but the end result is that we have each other and we are both better off than the day before we met. But I will still cringe when someone calls Molly lucky – she lost a lot too.

I watched Molly’s Gotcha Day video recently. When we were in China, Molly seemed so happy and well adjusted, but now when I see the video, I see a child that was more reserved and was adjusting, but not adjusted. It is amazing to me to see how much she has changed. At the beginning, I was her caretaker – now I am her mommy.

I want to add video of her Gotcha Day to the blog – once I figure it out, I will add!