Happy Birthday, DanNi!

Well, today DanNi turns 13! I can't believe I have a teenager in my home. The photos are from May 22, 2011 when she was baptized by her Daddy. I hope to upload more and photos from her birthday celebrations. So much has transpired in our lives since we started the journey of her adoption in October 2009. God has been so faithful and I am forever grateful to be a mother to these precious girls. They, as well as Matthew, are gifts from Him, that's for sure!

As I posted on FB yesterday, when Matthew asked her last night if she was excited about her birthday, she said, "Yes". And then went on to say that her excitement came from this being her first birthday as a Christian. As she was making her statement, I thought for certain she would say, "Yes, because this is my first birthday....." and I filled in the blank in my mind...'I have a family; I'm in America; I'm going to get some presents (for the first time ever)'.

But, no...her answer was much more than that...she's excited because she finally knows Jesus. What more could I want? What better birthday present exists than that? Even though this process and adjustment for our family has been difficult, the transformation that has taken place in DanNi over the last 6 weeks has been stunning.

For a girl who's grown up in church, was saved at 7, and that was the case for most of my childhoold and even adult friends, the opportunity to witness, firsthand, with my own daughter, the life-altering salvation of a child who'd never even heard of Jesus eight-and-a-half months ago, is mind-blowing and humbling, to say the least. And there's so much more to her than that....her precious past, full of emotional devastation and the effects of institutionalization in a Communist country...if you see her and know her, she is truly a miracle, a survivor..who is now, not only a Bass, but an adopted daughter of the King. And me? I am so blessed to be her mother. My life, too, has been radically changed and I am so glad.