Yes, sir, that's my baby

Here's your opportunity to directly compare Rachel's "finding ad" photo (left) with her referral photo. She was just a few weeks old in the first photo, and she was bundled for the cooler weather, but you can recognize the infant's features in the six-month-old Rachel (right). She is 8 1/2 months old now, and when we bring her home she'll be 10 or 11 months old. I wonder what changes we'll see in her appearance then?

I'm sure Rachel's first days with us will be well-documented -- her daddy's new video camera arrived Friday! -- but the three referral photos and the finding ad photo are likely to be all we'll see of her first few months. We hope her foster family has taken some photos they'll share, but that's very unlikely. Because she wasn't in the orphanage at all, there were no opportunities for visitors to take a shot of her, as sometimes happens. She doesn't even have the opportunity to blog about her daily life. So we'll always wonder about those early days.

From what we know, though, she's happy and healthy and well cared for right now. We feel very fortunate that she is young enough that we can celebrate her first birthday with her here at home -- that's a rare blessing. Overall, we feel humbled and honored that we were chosen to receive this very special gift.

Friday night Lance and I talked with the pediatrician who reviewed Rachel's file for us. He said he saw nothing that concerned him in the medical report, and that she appeared to be on track physically as well as developmentally. Of course, we understand that he has to base that assessment on somewhat sketchy information.

"This is really a leap of faith," he told us. But it's a leap he has taken four times himself.

Now look at this picture of us viewing Rachel's referral photos for the first time in our meeting Friday morning. Do you see any worries or doubts on our faces?

Of course not. We've had our share of worries in the last two years, of course, and we'll face plenty more in the future. But, right this minute, we're getting ready to leap.