Happy 11th Birthday, Anna!!

My sweet little girl is growing up!

Anna was born into our lives mere months after we adopted Song. For several years she tried to convince me she was Chinese, too, having travelled with me to China. In me, actually.

When Anna was born, I was very worried about Song's reaction to her new baby sister. I shouldn't have.

I remember sitting on our couch, holding my very new baby girl. Song climbed up beside me, looked at Anna, held out her arms and emphatically declared, "Mine."

She meant it, too.

When Anna was about 6 weeks old I realized one morning that I hadn't heard from her yet to let me know she was awake. I was a little worried as I hurried to her room, only to find that the 20 month old Song had clambered up into Anna's crib and had Anna in a sort of hug, talking away to this cute new dolly Mommy had brought home. Evidently Anna was quite involved in following the conversation, too, as she was giving no thought at all to her usual morning hunger!

Song repeated this maneuver pretty much daily until, when Anna was 18 months old, we had to discard the crib because her climbing had weakened it to the point where we worried it was going to be unsafe. No problem, though...they have shared a room ever since!

My other worry, when I gave birth to Anna, was that I now had four very young children and I was afraid I wouldn't have time for rocking and singing to Anna as I had the older children. I remember praying that God would give me time to snuggle my sweet baby girl. He did. In fact, He has been quite faithful to that prayer throughout the years.

Anna asks me to snuggle with her almost every single day. Still. How sweet is that?

I've added some birthday pics from our family celebration the morning of her birthday and her party that evening. Fun times!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA!