"Daniel Day" - 3 years

Three years ago today, we met our precious Daniel (then known as Shun Xian Sheng) in the Civil Affairs Bureau in Guangzhou, China.



(All of the pictures in this post are from our first 12 days together, in China.)


He wasn't too sure about us at first...



but we had food...

...and toys...

...so he warmed up pretty quick.

We like to joke that it took us 4 days to see Elisabeth's first smile...

4 hours to see Noah's first smile...

and about 4o minutes to see Daniel's first smile.

And since these first smiles 3 years ago, we've seen many more.

He smiles very often.

He's almost always happy. About 99.999999% of the time now.


Back then - the first days and weeks and months - he was happy about 97% of the time.

But when he wasn't happy...

look out!

If he was unhappy about something (read: pitching a fit!) he would plop himself right down and get into it good.

I'd only heard about children who held their breath when they were upset...I'd never seen it before.

Actually I really don't think it was even that he was trying to hold his breath, he just got so worked up that he stopped breathing...and he did it a couple times in China. (While we were out and about, of course - what fun would it be to do that in the hotel room with such a limited audience?). He would turn a sickening bluish purple color - it scared. me. to. death.

To put it mildly...the Lord has taught me alot through this precious little imp.

Right from the start, he just fit right in with our other two little munchkins.




And he has adored his big brother Noah since day 1.

Watching some older women practice their dancing in a park in Guangzhou






As compared to Elisabeth and Noah's transitions, Daniel and I had a longer "row to hoe" in terms of bonding and attachment. But the Lord is good and His mercies are new every morning. (Lam. 3:23) One day, after we'd been home about 9 months, I woke up one morning and realized that we had slowly but surely, finally arrived at a good place.



Daniel loved this "hip baby" and spent time in it in China...and even after we got home, to help in the attachment process.

I simply cannot imagine our family without this little monkey, and I praise the Lord for matching us together.

Happy Adoption Day, Daniel!