One Year Ago Today

~One year ago today we sat waiting in a small room to meet with the Ministry of Education (MOE) representative that would give us our referral.

~One year ago we saw Artem's black and white picture passed to us across the table and listened to the MOE rep tell us Artem's history.

~One year ago we made the two and a half hour drive to Fryazino, a city we had never heard of, let alone spell, to meet a child that we could potentially call our son.

~One year ago we walked up to the orphanage and saw little faces pressed up against the windows looking hopeful at us that we might be coming for them.

~One year ago we walked into a Russian orphanage and were surprised by the quiet calm the building had, as opposed to the noise and chaos we thought we'd hear.

~One year ago we sat in an office with the orphanage director listening to her read line-by-line through Artem's medical and social history while our translator tried to explain in English what all the scary sounding medical diagnosis meant.

~One year ago today I stopped breathing as we waited for the director to bring Artem into the room.

~One year ago a little boy in pink tights and green leiderhosen was brought into the office and for the first time I knew what it felt like for my heart to no longer be mine; for the child that was born in my heart was placed into my arms that day.

~One year ago today I cried tears of happiness after meeing Artem and seeing how perfect he was. All I could do was cry and kiss him over and over again and tell the orphanage director, "Thank you, he's so beautiful, thank you, thank you."

~One year ago we saw what our family would look like and understood why all the years spent trying to have a baby would prove futile despite the doctor's best efforts; because a little boy in a snow covered orphanage on the other side of the world was waiting for us.

~One year later a loving, laughing, silly, two year old fills our home with laughter and makes us wonder what life was like before we met him.

~One year later Artem has grown from the 24.75 inch baby we met in Russia to a 35 inch jumping, running, climbing, swinging, healthy-as-a-horse toddler.

~One year later we constantly ask ourselves, "Why us, what did we do to deserve Artem?" because we truly feel like we are the luckiest people in the world that won the ultimate jackpot; a healthy, happy, little boy who is obsessed with "choo choos", tractors, and currently the Chicken Dance.

It's more than we ever dreamed it could be and it all happened, one year ago today.