What a difference a year makes

I'm certain that every year I'll marvel at the changes in the girls and remember how they were the previous year.

But this year? This year is a bit more remarkable.

I've got goosebumps as I type that one year ago today we met the girls. It was dreadfully cold, we were in a small-ish office of a dreadfully cold Russian orphanage, they came in wearing short-sleeved summer dresses that shocked me. It was only later my mother, looking at pictures over and over and over, realized they'd put them in matching dresses for our first meeting.

Today? Today they're wearing Santa PJs, just had a hot breakfast of eggs and sausage, Hope's playing with some Little People and saying, "Hi, Mama, hi, Papa," Leah is watching Sesame Street, they're wearing backpacks given as gifts from my aunt, Leah's got a magic wand in her hand, Hope's kissing the digital picture frame that had a picture of Bri and me on it and now they've both just come to give me real kisses.

I'm going to stop, because I'm going to cry, and really I need to go shower.

Every year will be remarkable. This past year has been, even for this word girl, a bit beyond words.

Here's my post from last year: http://thesunandthemoonandthestars.blogspot.com/2009/12/today-was-first-sunny-day-in-december.html

Here's are pics of then. You can see the now on the side of the blog - and at the end of the post. While Leah looks a bit solemn, they were very sweet snuggling on the couch while I made breakfast.