A year ago this morning, Tom and I were excitedly meeting the families in our travel group and getting ready to head to the Beijing Children's Welfare Institute. A year ago this morning, Quinn was going about his business, with probably no idea that his entire world was about to change. And then we met. Overwhelming joy on our end. Total shutdown on his end.
This is our first family photo:
This is what Quinn looked like then:
And this is what he looks like now:
It's astonishing to consider how far Quinn has come 365 days. We've seen him learn to sit up, to eat solid foods, to use a sippy cup and then a straw, to pull himself to a stand, to cruise around holding onto furniture, to walk, to babble, to run, to talk.
More importantly, we've seen his fun-loving, hilarious, sweet personality peek out from behind his protective armor and then leave it behind all together. The kid who wouldn't look us in the eye for nearly a week now jumps across the room into our arm, squeals with delight when he sees one of us after a separation and barks "MaMa" or "BaBa" when he wants something because he knows we'll come running.
I can't even put into words how much we love this child. We were blessed beyond imagination the day we became a family one year ago, and we can't wait to see what the next year will bring.
The day after his birthday, Quinn was still so pooped he fell asleep on the hard floor while playing with the leftover streamers.
A fun toy, a glass of cold milk and a nice warm day. You'd be smiling, too!
