And now you are eight...

There once was a mommy who was not finished with her family...she knew there was one more out there...

There once was a precious baby who needed a family...

And thus began the story of our family.

I will always ache a little that I was not there the moment our sweet Erika was born.  I would have willingly sat by her little incubator, fed her, held her, kissed her little head.  But that was not what happened.  Instead...in December 2006, the Lord impressed upon me to pray for this little girl.  I did not know her, know about her, know if it is was even really God...until one day when I looked back through my journals.

We actually did not get to meet Erika until she was about 15 months old.  I will never forget how she toddled over to me, laid her head on my shoulder and let me pick her up.  As if somewhere deep inside of her, she knew that I was the mommy she had been looking for.  I remember when a month later, we finally got to bring her home...and she was immediately at home.  There was no adjusting to a new house, simply contentment.

A week after Erika came to live with us, we went to Disney World.  A trip that had been planned for over a year, as Lee was performing a wedding in Florida.  It was a dream vacation for me for sure.  I remember as we entered Disney World...my three precious children...Josh, 12, Tori, 9 and Erika 16 months...I was overwhelmed and began to cry.  God had answered my deepest prayer.

Now, here we are in Belize, Central America.   Erika had just turned four when we moved here.  So she has now almost lived half her life in the US and half her life in Belize.  It is hard to believe.  When I think back to how little she was when we came.  How much has happened in those years.  So many changes in our lives, our family, our home...

And who misses her big brother most of all (after his mom)????

Happy Birthday to a little girl with big attitude who will change the world for Jesus some day!!!!

Mommy can't imagine her life without you:)