There is a First Time for Everything.

     When you adopt an older child you often think of all of the firsts that they are experiencing. Everything is new, strange and different than what they knew before. As a parent, we often take as many pictures of our children's first experiences as we can. These split second memories will hopefully recall happiness in our families time together later in our life.
       Last night I was going through some of the pictures I took, of our family, in the first week that Blandis was home. I remember taking these images and being excited that she was getting to do something purely childish. She was not working, cleaning, cooking or helping. It was a time she was getting to feel the blessings of being our child. Blandis was going to experience the joy of running threw the sprinkler. Oh, how I wanted to remember that look of excitement on her face.
       Only as I was looking at the pictures I realized there was something bigger. It is much much bigger. It was in God's plans for our adoption and I feel that I may have not held it in importance. How could I have missed it? As Blandis was having her first joy, so were her brothers. Santiago and Everett were getting to share in this first moment. I see so much happiness on their faces. As they get older they will remember running through the sprinkler together, all together.
       Even though Rob and I waited to bring home Blandis her siblings were waiting also. We adopted wanting to bring Blandis into our family. How could I forget that, as she had her first, we would all be having firsts.