Happy Birthday, Joshua!

Today, you are three years old. How we long to have you here with us, and we pray that our travel dates to China will come very soon. Everyone is ready; everything is ready. Visas are in hand. We have all but packed! As soon as we receive our travel invitation, we will pack our bags and fly to you!

We won't eat any cake today -- we're saving it for one day when you are with us. Friends of ours have a birthday tradition to eat cake for breakfast! They place a slice of cake in their cereal bowls and pour milk right over the top of it. We think that sounds like a fun tradition to start -- but we we'll wait to see what you think. Perhaps you'd rather have congee for breakfast, and we'll learn how to make that too!

We've tucked a few little presents away, and you can open them whenever you're ready. My favorite comes from Aunt Marcie. She was shopping for you one day, filling up a hand-me down backpack with travel toys and books, when she bumped into a friend. Her friend loved hearing your story, and was moved by the legend of the red thread. She and Marcie made you the beautiful ball in the picture, matching material to the outfit we sent you a few months ago and weaving each of our names together with one continuous red thread. We've set the ball on our mantel, with your name facing front, and every time we read your name or see your picture, we say another prayer that our family will be together soon.

When I was taking pictures of the ball for this posting, I took many of just the ball. But in this picture, two other pieces resting on our mantel made it into the photo. When I saw the little statue of a father holding his son and the words on our sign, Be Welcome, Be Home; I decided the entire grouping belonged together -- for it expresses our heart's deepest desire, to hold you in our arms, to welcome you home.

You have not left our thoughts today, as every day. Happy birthday, sweet son and brother.

Love,
Daddy, Mama, Andrew, Anna, and Jacob