Our little angel is five years old!

I will take a little break from Arkansas photos to wish our beautiful daughter a happy birthday!! I cannot believe that she is five today! Sometimes, it is still hard to believe that we haven't known her all her life...or that we haven't known her all of our lives. She and her baby brothers are positively the lights of our lives. It was a crooked path that brought them to us, but we wouldn't change a single thing about it. We believe that every inch of it was orchestrated by God and has been meant to be since the beginning of time.

And, on that note, I'd like to take a little trip down memory lane to the very first glimpse I got of our sweet girl. Everyone knows the story...it was the very last minute and we thought that our adoption agency wouldn't be able to match us with siblings as we had requested. Out of the blue, I received an email from our agency about a five-day-old baby boy and his two-and-a-half-year-old sister. I opened one of the attachments and fell in love like I had never, ever been before.



Then, about a month later, we got meet that little angel in person. There was a miscommunication between our agency and the Guatemalan facilitator, so we were waiting around for two hours before the foster family arrived with Catalina and Gus. Every second that passed made me more and more anxious, so I was really about to burst when I finally turned my head and saw Catalina walking toward me wearing the fluffiest pink dress and the most nervous little expression on her face. I had never seen anything more beautiful and I just ran toward her and dropped to my knees in tears, thinking that I would probably scare her to death. But, her foster mom encouraged her with a tap on the shoulder and that brave little girl stepped forward, kissed me on the lips and said, "Hola, Mama." It was the most amazing day of my life.



And, here we are, over two years later, and she's five-years-old and only a month away from starting pre-k. She's passionate and loving and as bright and spirited as they come. I can only imagine the wonderful things that God has in store for her and I just hope and pray that I am doing a decent job of preparing her for it all.

Here are some photos of her party, a fiesta held last Friday afternoon. The family room was decorated with three pinatas (Dora the Explorer, a star, and a donkey) and brightly colored paper fiesta flags (don't I sound like I'm summarizing a wedding for the bride's hometown newspaper article?!? ha!). We had sombreros, maracas, and stickers, as well as snacks (Goldfish, quesadillas, chips, chicken strips), for her little guests. Also, colorful cookies and a bright (and delish!) birthday cake. It was fun and crazy and just what she wanted.

The birthday girl:



Her brother, who tried to avoid the crowd as much as possible:



The cookies were smiley faces whose eyes, nose, and mouth were made of black icing. Between the black icing and the colorful cake frosting, we wound up with lots of dirty faces!













Mmmmmm, more sugar:



McConnell opened the pinata on the first pull:



My family room, before things got crazy:



In the thick of it:



The aftermath of fiesta de Catalina:



It was the first children's birthday party I have thrown and I was surprised how exhausting it all was. But, we'd do anything for that little girl, so maybe I should go ahead and get started on next year's shindig. I have to say that if it weren't for my mom's help, it wouldn't have gotten done. Thanks, Bibi. And, happy birthday, Catalina Marisol!!