Easter and an Extraordinary Event

Seriously.

This girl cannot get any cuter.

This is her on Easter Sunday.  How about that dress?  I bought it after Christmas at Target for $4.24... but she looks like a million bucks!!!












And she didn't mind telling everyone at church about her dress, and her shoes, and her tights.  I mean, she may not be speaking English, but I think she gets her message across pretty clearly.  ;-)

With her brothers.  Ben didn't like his shirt, can you tell?









First time hunting Easter eggs!












Seriously YUMMY, this girl is!!!







That crinkle nose gets me every time.  :-)



Not that Easter isn't an Extraordinary Event, but I have another extraordinary story to relate.

So, on her Gladney paperwork Lilah is listed as 2 1/2.  Long before we went to Ethiopia to bring her home, we could tell by her photos and her measurements that she was older than that.  But since (THIS PORTION REMOVED BY GAYLA FOR PRIVACY REASONS), Gladney just counted the day she was brought into care as her 2nd birthday.  That day was July 20, 2009.  We will always keep this as a Memorial Day in our family- But it isn't her birthday.  Since we have to do a re-adoption here in the states, we knew we would just be able to pick a new birthday for her.  Filling out the census made us chose a date sooner than we were really prepared to, so we chose April 12th.  April b/c it is the month of flowers and both her names mean "flower" and the 12th b/c 12 is my favorite number.  BUT... it was nagging at me that this wasn't her real birthday either.  And since she is definitely going to out grow her size 3T clothes by the end of summer, it's obvious that really she isn't going to turn 3 on April 12- she's already 3.  But when???  It was really starting to bother me.  Dentists can look at her teeth and tell us approximately how old she is, but our dental appts aren't until the end of this month.  It was bugging me so much yesterday that I just prayed about it and asked that if God wanted us to chose another date that was closer to her real time of birth to just help us to see what that might be.

So yesterday we had our family chiropractic appointments.  It was Lilah's first time so they had to take x-rays before they adjusted her, and then more x-rays after her first adjustment.  And then we had to go back in the afternoon for Jack and Ben and I to get our adjustments.  (I am a big believer in chiropractic care!  I think it helped Jack to heal from allergies and asthma when he was a toddler.  We faithfully go once a month!)  So all up I was in that office for about 3 hours yesterday.  That allowed for a lot of chat time with the staff.  I had mentioned when filling out Lilah's paperwork that we didn't really know when her birthday was, so Dr. Ray's wife said, "You know, Dr. Ray can probably look at her x-rays and tell by her teeth how old she is." I was thrilled!  So she asked him and he agreed.  As we were on our way to the room to look at her x-rays, he just happened to turn to his secretary and say, "Can you give me Jack's old x-rays?"  Kinda on a whim.  He put Jack's first x-ray from our very first visit to him on the screen, then put hers from yesterday right next to it.  He looked at them for a moment and then said, "These are identical."  And they were!  I mean- identical!  He pointed out the 3-year molars on each, how certain teeth were just below the surface on each, how others were still deep down on each... it was pretty amazing!  So, he said, "So that means that however old Jack was when these x-rays were taken, that's just about how old Lilah is today!"  We looked at the date on the x-rays- Jack was 3 years, 5 months and 11 days old.  Wow.  I just burst out crying!!!  We could know as close as is possible how old she is!!!   And get this... when you back up yesterday's date by 5 months and 11 days, guess where you end up???  ALMOST EXACTLY ON MY BIRTHDAY!!!  For real!!!  She was born in 2006 if not exactly on my birthday, then very, very close!!!  I mean, we could be off by a few days or even a couple of weeks, but we now know as close as we possibly can when she was born.  ISN'T THAT AMAZING???  

And to think- that the day I took Jack to the chiropractor back in 2004- who would have guessed that those x-rays taken that day would be used in such an incredible way so many years later!!!  She wasn't even born yet, and I believe God knew that we would be able to use those x-rays to give us a really big blessing yesterday.  Just incredible.

I have my dear, dear, heart-friend Becky to thank for the following words: "You may not have given her birth, but you can give her your birthday."  And that is exactly what I am planning on doing.  She can have my birthday.  I'm thrilled to be able to share it with her.

October 28, 2006

Thanks God.  What a beautiful blessing!!!!!!!!!!!

It may not be the "real" exact date she was born, but it's darn close.  And it's very special to me to be able to share it with my daughter.