It’s your birthday today.  I wonder if they celebrated you.  Did you eat something special?  Do you still like KFC Chicken?  I know they don’t give you presents and that there’s nothing you truly call yours, but I hope they acknowledged you in some way.  I hope you got to have bubble gum and play outside and not worry about the terrible pandemic ravaging your country right now.  Do you know how old you are?  Last time the social worker asked you, you said three years old.  You were five.  I know that’s because they don’t really explain birthdays to you or make much fuss over your special day.  It still breaks my heart. Do you know about us yet?  That you have a family anxiously waiting for you and praying for you and loving you every day?  We hope they share our care packages with you soon and that they let you hold the stuffed bear we sent you, at least in the office.  At least today.

We will celebrate you today.  We will sing you happy birthday from afar and eat cake and wish so very hard that you were sitting here with us.  We will wonder what your favorite flavor of cake is.  We will practice our Thai.  We will set aside your birthday gift for when we finally get to hold you in our arms.  I can’t wait to see the smile on your face and those dimples in your cheeks as you get to blow out your birthday candles.

We are so thankful you were born 7 years ago today.  We thank God every day that your birth mom brought you to the hospital in time.  That the hospital was able to treat the pneumonia.   That you survived and are thriving today at the orphanage.  That through all the twists and turns in both our lives, we have arrived here in this moment, on your birthday, waiting for you.  We are so thankful for God’s plan.  We desperately hope that this time next year we will be celebrating you, together.  Happy Birthday, sweet Sunny.

“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24