Happy Birthday, Isabel!

There once was a girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead ...

And we called her Isabel Hope.

We can hardly believe it has been 7 years since this wonderful daughter came into our lives! Yesterday I was sharing with Isabel what I remembered of the call that her birthmom was in labor, and of driving (Eva and I from Delaware, and Pedro from Michigan) to Pennsylvania to await her arrival. I can still recall the range of emotions of that day: excitement, impatience, anxiety, fear, hope, anticipation ... Never did we expect that our first meeting would be in the furthest corner of the Neo-Natal Intensive Unit, gathered around a red-faced, whimpering baby stuck with wires from head to toe. Never did we imagine that our first days together would include MRI's, blood transfusions and somber meetings with doctors unsure of Isabel's future prognosis and when (or whether) she would even leave the hospital.

But it was love at first sight. No, it was love before first sight and that is how we knew that no matter what the future had in store for us - and at that point it was very uncertain - this was our precious daughter, chosen by God for our family before she was even born.

Isabel has enriched our lives in so many ways. She has inspired us with her determination; she has challenged us with her tenacity; she has blessed us with her compassion. She has taken us to places we never expected to see and she has taught us to see life through different eyes.

Today is her special day, and I want to simply say: Happy Birthday, Isabel Hope. You are truly a gift! I pray that today is everything you wished for, and more. We love you!

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P.S. To give you a glimpse of the kind of person Isabel is, when we asked her what she'd like for her birthday she honestly couldn't think of more than two gifts that she wanted: a Barbie, and some paint. What interested her more was a trip to HappyLand (sort of like Chuck E. Cheese) with her brother and sister and one friend, and the fact that her classmates at school were going to sing Happy Birthday to her today! She is all about people, and relationships instead of "stuff."