Sunday, December 14, 2008

Happy 1st Birthday Ava Marie!

Today is Ava Marie's 1st Birthday! I am so happy to be celebrating this day with my cute little babies big day. Ava Marie was 4 days old when she came to live with our family.

I'll never forget the phone call at 6pm on a Friday night. The girls had just sat down to dinner and we were planning on watching a Christmas movie later that evening. The agency called and said, "We have a 4 day old baby girl...are you interested?" Boy, was I!! I told the girls to eat quickly and then loaded them in the van and we drove to Lawrence (which was halfway to Topeka, where Ava was born.) and met the social worker in a parking lot. Not exactly a romantic story, but I could have been anywhere...when she placed Ava Marie into my arms I was so excited I was trembling! She was asleep, so we gently put her into the van and I told the girls they needed to be really quiet on the way home. Yeah, right! They were way too excited and kept squealing every time she moved! But she slept all the way back to our house.

I carried her car seat into the house and placed it next to the Christmas Tree. Then I got the girls to bed as it was almost midnight by then! After they were settled I went back downstairs and lifted her out of the carrier, I remember standing next to the tree, looking at her little face in the glow of the little white lights. She was the best Christmas present I had ever received. Thank you Lord!

3 comments:

Sally said...

Maureen, that is so awesome. I am so happy for you. Ava Marie is so precious, I don't know how we all got so lucky :)

maureen said...

Faith, Sally...pure Faith!

16 blessings'mom said...

Okay, that is the best story I have ever heard. How wonderful, and she is so pretty. When I read this, I showed it to some of my older kids, and they also thought she is just beautiful. I have a friend who decided to adopt, and a few years back, she got a call on Good Friday that a baby boy was born, did she want him? She took him home from the hospital on Easter Sunday. He was 3 days old. She had been waiting for a baby for years. I think a phone call like that is like a dream come true....