What are the chances?

Last Fall, when we first decided to start looking for a waiting child in China, the thought popped into my head "how cool would it be if our child and I had the same birthday?" Because ... um ... what are the chances of that?! My sister and I -- born nine years apart -- share a birthday, so the sharing-a-birthday-thing was on my radar, and Danny and I were looking for a child in the age range that would fall with a summer birthday. But, really, what were the chances of that happening? Imagine my surprise when I checked my email the morning of October 21, 2009, and saw an email titled "Referral -- Lian Jia Jing" ... as I anxiously opened the file, the first thing I saw was, "Date of Birth: July 31" -- my birthday. My mouth hit the floor. I couldn't believe what I was seeing ... I may have even let a curse word fly. I mean what are the chances??? I knew she was our daughter. I didn't even know how serious her medical needs were, but I knew she was ours. We accepted her file that day, and have never looked back.

And this weekend, we get to celebrate our first triple joint birthday -- me (turning 34), my sister (turning 25), and my daughter (turning TWO!). Now seriously, what are the chances of that?

We will be living it up with Lia Kate this weekend because technically it's her FIRST birthday. I'm thinking no one was celebrating her birthday last year in the orphanage, so we'll just make up for lost time, starting this morning with a little ladybug party with friends. Then on Saturday we'll celebrate all three July 31 birthdays with some family, and then next weekend with more family.

Lia Katherine, I am so thrilled to share a birthday with you. You were so meant to be a part of this family! Happy 2nd first birthday!!!