{Celebrating Our Sunshine}

Today we celebrated our Sunshine Girl!  A sweet, simple celebration with her favorite things...cookies, bubbles, coloring, stickers, water beads and play-doh!  Just family and her only playdate friends from the past year made for the perfect crowd.

Ailee James sang along as we sang "Happy Birthday" to her and blew out her candles on her THREE cakes with gusto!  I saw a while back someone do cupcakes for the birthdays they had missed while their daughter was in the orphanage so we decided to do the same...but with cakes!  For her 1st birthday, she had Lemonade Bundt Cake. For her 2nd birthday, she had our family favorite Brown Sugar Cinnamon Cake. And, for her 3rd birthday, I hired the local bakery to make a double decker wedding cake with buttercream icing bottom layer and red velvet top layer.  We added kettle corn and fruit to the mix as those are two of her favorite snacks.

As I've got used to, during these types of things with both my girls, my mind drifts off at times and my prayers go to the brave women that birthed our daughters.  Oh how I wish they could get a glimpse of them!  To see the JOY in their eyes as their lives are celebrated surrounded by people who love them deeply.  I'll possibly never know the reasons that lead to AJ becoming mine...health wise it doesn't make sense and it's not fair or right to speculate and fill her mind with scenarios that very well may not be true.  The answer is simply "I don't know...".  If it is their wish, I pray one day we do and that it brings them some sort of peace and healing.  But, for now, we are in this precious stage where the questions aren't yet being asked and the happiness is pure.  Of course, there are deep triggers and many of which I will never understand that can lead to moments and even days of sadness and fits that they can't yet process.  It is a delicate balance to raise and protect and nurture.  And, I am beyond grateful that The Lord has entrusted our family with those.

Dubbie Bubble, you have brought LIGHT to our family in places we didn't know we needed.  You make us laugh endlessly and are JOY as your name perfectly describes.  You are smart and sassy and watching you bloom is the best gift we never knew we needed.  We rejoice in your life and love you forever and ever!  Celebrating you, our Sunshine girl, is the BEST!