Happy 1st Birthday, Joelle

Joelle,

I can't wait until you are old enough to understand the story of how we prayed for you to come.

Family and friends all over prayed and waited on the Lord, and in his very perfect timing

you came.

We thought that we were ready for you years ago, but the Lord knew that we needed time to do some other things first, such as....

...fall more in love with each other

...get used to a brand new home in a foreign land

...and learn Chinese!

The years we spent praying for you were not in vain... we were so eager for you to come that no time was wasted complaining over the morning sickness and then the sleepless nights!

~

Here you are the day you were born! You gave us such a scare because your heart rate dropped too low...

but Dr. Poonsak in the Bangkok Bumrungraud Hospital knew just what to do. 20 minutes later you were born via c-section.

Here you are just 1 month old.

...2 months old

3 months old and so much bigger!

4 months old and SMILING at everything!

5 months old and even the dog is charmed by you!

6 months old-- we threw a big party and you ate solids for the first time.  Carrots-- and you still love 'em!

7 months old

...another photo from 7 months old. It's one of my favorites because it shows what a HAM you are!

8 months old- what a special time! You took a 12 hour plane ride and met Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Jason and Aunt Shanna and your "Georgia" cousins Grace, Baker and Brooks for the first time!

A little later, you got to see Gran Gran and GranDaddy again- you probably don't remember, but you met them when you were just 1 week old when they came all the way to Thailand to meet you

... then a little later, met Uncle John S., Aunt Briggie and Uncle John and your "Alabama cousins" Hannah, Sadie-Anne and Seth!

You love your cousins and they certainly LOVE you too!!

9 months old and still think grass is so strange! They don't have much of that in China, do they?

10 months old and you're still the happiest baby every one has ever known!

11 months old

1 year old! Where did the last 12 months go?! We were so curious what you would do with a cupcake...

would you dig in or just take dainty bites?

...you dipped your fingers in it and licked the icing off your fingertip!!  Grandpa named you "Miss Priss" and I think he's right!

The cake I made for you has a very special meaning!

I printed stamps from Thailand, China and America onto icing with edible ink, representing all the countries that are special to you.

Thailand: the country you were born in,

China: the country where you're growing up

America: your heritage and nationality

vanilla and chocolate--- you liked the vanilla!

This was your personal cupcake.  I put a suitcase as decoration because it seems to represent your life in such a large way already!

Happy Birthday, Joelle!  Every year we will chose a Bible verse to pray over you, and this is what we chose for this coming year:

1 Timothy 1:5

The goal of this command is LOVE which comes from a

pure heart,

a good conscience,

and a sincere faith.