Happy Gotcha Day / Forever Family Day on August 13th !!

One year ago Mao Si Dan (18 months old) was placed into a van with her
Nanny for a 4 hour ride from Maoming to Guangzhou to meet her forever
family. I can still remember walking in and seeing her thru a curtain smiling 
and playing with her Nanny. She was then placed into my arms and 
became Ruthie Grace Sidan Boyd. 

What a difference a year makes in a little person's eyes and heart. She has
gone from being in an orphanage with many children to being in a loving
home with a brother, sister, dog, Mom and Dad that love her and adore her
with all of our hearts. We can't imagine life without this fun loving,
spunky, happy, smiling child. What a blessing she is to us and to many.

In the past year, she has been through 3 surgeries, lip repair, palate
repair and replacement of tubes. She has endured lots of blood work, lots
of waiting rooms, lots of strange looking doctors and nurses, lots of
crinkly white paper in the doctors offices to sit on that has become an
annoying sound to her, lots of plastic bracelets on her ankle that
aggravate her and are not so pretty with her new name on them, lots of pain
medicine, tylenol, ibuprofen, band-aids, iron supplement drops and lots of
diapers. We have watched her leave my arms with some stranger to take her
back for surgery...........broke my heart. It broke my heart because in her
eyes she was leaving her Mommy's arms with someone again and again to
endure more pain without knowing that her Mommy and Daddy were doing what
was best for her. I could see the question in her eyes, "Why are you
letting me go?"  This was very hard for me to except, however, I knew that
she was coming back to my arms after the surgery and I could tell her over
and over that I was not leaving her and I loved her very much. That was
impossible to explain to a 2 year old that had been yanked from her Nanny
and placed with a strange family that she has only seen pictures of less
than a year ago. When she came out of surgery, she was placed back into my
arms and looked so different and still so beautiful. In China, she didn't
know any different. She looked this way and thought that was the way of
life. Others looked like her too. She was strong and stayed strong. 

                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                            
As Christians we should fully understand the vital role of adoption, as we were 
adopted into God’s family through Christ, so that we who were orphans in need 
of rescue now call God, “Father” (Romans 8:15).                                        
                                                                                                                    

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look
after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being.
James 1:27

She received a new family, new name, a new smile, a new palate and her
hearing isn't clogged up from infection any longer. She has a new life! Her
life has forever changed our family!  Ruthie can now blow bubbles, drink
from a straw, chew gum, jump, run, dance and has started forming sentences
and many many other things. To many this is nothing, to Ruthie this is
EVERYTHING! I can remember when she was trying so hard to drink from a
straw a few weeks after her palate surgery and got frustrated and just
quit..............for a minute. Then she picked it back up and did it. The
smile and accomplishment was more than I could stand! A tiny little person
jumping up and down saying "I did it!" was heart warming to watch,
especially with those almond eyes going to a complete slant!

So what fun has she had this year? She has enjoyed all the holidays, wore
fancy dresses, worn new shoes and clothes!! She has enjoyed all new foods,
there is not much this chic doesn't like! She loves to swim, she loves
gummies, dorito's, EOS chapstick, her blanket and toys! She loves
everything about her new life! She loves to immitate and listens very well.
She is a character to say the least! She has been to the College World
Series in Omaha, Nebraska and watched her brother play in a Little League
World Series tournament. To get to Nebraska, we drove through Mississippi,
Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri and Iowa. She has recently enjoyed a trip
to Gulf Shores with us and her grandparents where she had a blast in the sand and water. 
She enjoyed ice-cream, putt putt, arcades and much more! We have painted her toe 
nails and fixed her hair. This chic has done more in this past year than I have in my
35 years! She has blessed us and brought so much excitement to our little
family! Through all the fun and excitement, we have been blessed with a
little girl that has adopted us as her parents and family.  She has become
a fan of many!

As today, August 13th, is her "Gotcha Day" or our "Forever Family Day", we will always
set aside this day to remember that this child was given to us by God. May
we always have renewed joy and hope in the remembrance that while we were
orphans, Christ came to save us. We have also been adopted and are now sons
and daughters of the Most High God!

Blessings and Love!!


Ruthie's Forever Momma