Three years ago.

3 years....where were you three years ago today? I was lying on my aunt's couch with a blood clot, awaiting a call I had waited 10 yrs for. Marianne called that afternoon around 2pm or so and told me, we had a daughter. Her name was Nan Cai Ke, soon to be Mae-Lei Cai Ke Prater.

She was 8 months old, in the orphanage in Maoming City, Guangdong Province. Then labor truly began. We still had to wait another 24 hours to finally see her picture. My baby shower was two days later on saturday. We mailed our paperwork back to our agency accepting Mae-Lei as our daughter. Then it was time to start packing...8 weeks went very quickly. Next thing I knew we were on our way to Newark and on to China. 3 years seems like such a short time, but an eternity all the same. She is our daughter...she was meant for us and while China introduced us, God had us planned long before we ever knew it.

Three years.