5 years after gotcha...

Our sweet, sweet Caroline,


Five years ago today, we stood before the judge and vowed to love you for the rest of our lives.

We called it your "Gotcha Day," and every October 13, we remember and celebrate how God gave you to our family through adoption.


Though we were at your birth, and you came home with us from the hospital,
it was this day your name was forever changed
and your adoption was final.
You were declared ours.
Nothing could separate you from our family.


What an amazing five years we have had together.
What a young lady you have become.
"Special" is an understatement.
You didn't need to come out of my tummy
for me to love you this deeply.
Our family is so blessed because of you.
Our lives are fuller, our hearts are happier,
and our wallets are much, much lighter.
(ha!)


I didn't know then what would lie ahead of us in our journey.
And who knows what the next five years will hold.
But God couldn't have been any more good
in leading us to you.

This day was bittersweet for your birthmommy,
who wanted you for her own
yet longed for more for you than she could give.
Your story was forever changed
by the sacrificial love she had (and still has) for you.

We were not worthy of such grace poured out upon us
in the gift of you.


Your story is like how God adopts each of us as His children.
He brings us into His family, and calls us His son or daughter.
Our lives are forever changed.
Our eternities are secure.
We are declared His.
Nothing can separate us from His family.

We praise God that we "gotcha."
And even though you didn't crack a single smile that day,


you've more than made up for it with millions more.

We love you forever, precious girl.
Mommy and Daddy