Happy Gotcha Day!

We celebrated our 4th "Gotcha Day" with Ella on Sunday, January 11. Gotcha Day or Forever Family Day is known in the adoption community as the day that a child becomes a part of his or her forever family. This is such a special day, and it's sometimes even more celebrated than birthdays. Ella loves to hear her "birth" story, so we spent much of Sunday telling and retelling how we met. It was such a special day. She had a fever most of the weekend but still had enough energy to join the festivities (which is usually the case for children when presents are involved). She gets to pick where we eat, and then she always gets a special present from a collection that we purchased while in China as well as something else that she's maybe wanted for a while. This year, we gave her the chop we had made for her while in China. It's a beautiful piece of carved marble, with her name in both English and Chinese carved into the bottom. There's also a ladybug and dragonfly carved on both sides of her name. It's a stamp that she can use on envelopes etc. It came in a very special box with an ink well, also. We've waited a long time to give it to her. When she opened it, she took in a deep breath and said, "Oh, mama!" It was very sweet. Of course the breath was much deeper when she opened the DS that she's wanted for a while :-) We enjoyed being together, as always, and will continue to treasure these celebrations. Here are a few pics from the day: