Today's the One Year Anniversary...

of this blog! I can't believe I've reached this point. The earth has made one full revolution around the sun- more or less- in the time that this blog has been in existence. (You can look at my first few posts, pre-Sasha, pre-referral, and pre-being-on-the-waiting-list, here: http://bigsisdiaries.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.htmlt It really is hard to believe. I told my mom about my "blogiversary" and she said, "You're kidding! If you asked me to guess how long you've had it, I never would have guessed a year."

I feel like the adage "what a difference a year makes" is appropriate to include here, yet only in some respects. If you think about the big picture, certainly our lives have changed over the past year. I mean, we've added another member to our family, and from Ethiopia, for goodness' sake! Yet at the same time, it's remarkable how completely normal things are and amazing how they're only very slightly altered by having Sasha with us. I never would have imagined I could have thought this the day we first met her at the care center (which, by the way, I promise to finish my post about!) but we all feel like we've had her forever. We've had virtually no problems from her, and she's the biggest ham you could ever meet- in normal and not-so-normal ways! (She does totally random things spontaneously all the time. She's not afraid to, out of the blue, walk around the house with an open-mouthed smile, waving at inanimate objects, and the next second drop to the floor and crawl very quickly and for no apparent reason, always reaching out to pull us down to join her.) She's a complete goofball in every sense of the word, so we couldn't have a more perfect fit for our family. Her spontaniety isn't restricted to odd behavior, though- on a whim, she'll just reach out and hug you or blow tons of kisses at you. She's the sweetest, funniest, most beautiful girl I've ever seen, and I know I've said that over and over again, but she couldn't be better, really. And though each aspect of her has been the best addition to our lives, things move on as they always have, without interruption. Except for her very "actiony" and on-the-go nature, leaving us often exhausted at the end of the day (luckily she sleeps through the night!) she's a quite low-maintenance child. It's never hard to entertain her, and she rarely ever cries or throws big fits and tantrums.

So although the waiting process felt like a never-ending, winding road, it's finally come to an end. In the moment, the time felt excruciatingly long, but looking at the big picture, it feels like no time at all. It's shocking that I've been documenting our journey for the past year, and that it extended for a year before that, because now, it's as though she's been a part of our lives for all of my life. This is, of course, impossible, since she celebrated her 18-month (now officially 1.5 years!) birthday 5 days ago, but I'm so, so glad that I'll have the rest of my life with her!

*Today is also momentous because it marks the exact halfway point in our summer vacation. I can't, and don't want to, belive that either! It's also special because the seventh and final Harry Potter book came out, as everyone knows. I'm a little behind- I'm just now reading the fourth- so please no one spoil the ending!!!!