August 28th, 2006 was so hot. We had arrived in Jiangxi earlier in the day and took a bus to a government office. I can remember riding the elevator up to floor number 7. When we stepped off the elevator you could hear babies. As we entered the room that held our babies, I laid eyes on Dreamsicle for the first time. She was holding on to her Ayi, lightly tapping her leg over and over. She had little tufts of bird hair and was the tiniest of the tiny. Wearing summer Strawberry Shortcake pajamas and pink shoes. My heart was pounding so loud I really thought that the other families would most certainly be able to hear it. I could hardly contain myself as I watched her, mesmerized by her every move. At one point, while our guide was having a conversation with the orphanage director I was aching to hold Dreamsicle so badly that I pleaded with McGyver to "just go get her". It happened soon enough, we were the second family called. When they finally placed her in my arms, I took her to a quiet corner of the room and don't remember a thing about the rest of the families getting their babies. I was so deeply in love at that very moment that the rest of the world seemed out of focus. Time seemed to stand still as I held her and we scoped each other out. There were what seemed like hours of waiting around after that, completing paperwork, sweating like never before, impatiently waiting to be able to go back to the hotel to begin our lives together as a family.
Here we are one year later. The tiniest of the tiny has grown so much, come so far, completely entrenched herself into the fiber of our very beings. Thanks for allowing us to parent you Dreamsicle. We are so blessed
