I'm still shocked by the joy in her little face in this picture. This was taken in our hotel room in Viet Nam after we returned from our Giving and Receiving ceremony. We had been a family for approximately four or five hours at the time. This baby had been lovingly handed to us by her caregivers, taken to the Department of Justice for the Giving and Receiving ceremony and then taken back to our hotel in Hanoi. Although throughout this first day together we didn't get any tears, we also didn't get any smiles.

That... more

I’d like to make Fridays “Life with Ella” days. Every Friday I’ll share a picture and story about my baby girl, her experiences in Viet Nam and how she’s doing now that we’re home.

Since I have, oh, about a trillion pictures and stories of her, it was hard for me to think of where to start. So I decided to share a picture of the day we first met her, and her nannies’ attempt to style her hair.

In all of Ella’s referral pictures and the pictures we received of her while our paperwork was being processed she had a wild head of thick, black hair that was often standing straight up as if she had stuck her finger in an electrical socket. Of course, we were smitten and I began my... more