The first week of May, we ordered a birthday cake for our favorite personality-packed girl.
After spending a month with us this winter, Joy was back in her home orphanage in China, waiting for her forever family to complete the paperwork to bring her home. No child should feel as if her special moments don’t matter, and we wanted to make sure that this beautiful girl who had touched a place deep in our souls felt loved and celebrated as she turned 8 years old.
The process of ordering cakes and cards to be delivered to orphanages can sometimes take days or weeks, so we weren’t surprised when, by June, we still hadn’t heard any confirmation of Joy’s birthday delivery.
But this week, six weeks after we sent her a cake and a letter telling her how much she was treasured, thought about, prayed for and loved, we finally received a confirmation email.
Joy’s cake had accidentally been delivered to another child, and the organization was quickly correcting the error and sending a NEW cake with the old letter immediately to Joy.
Although it took longer than expected, the end result was totally worth the wait. Because these are the pictures we just received of the birthday party Joy’s beautiful nannies held for her and all her friends when she finally received her package this week!
THAT FACE!!!
My heart. <3
But these pictures of one of our favorite girls in the world weren’t the only highlight of our month.
Because we received a SECOND set of pictures from the organization that delivered our cake to the wrong child …
PICTURES OF OUR OWN CHILD BLOWING OUT THE CANDLES ON WHAT WE WILL PRETEND IS HIS HALF-BIRTHDAY CAKE!
And oh my gosh, are we in love!!!
This video likely captures the moment that Superhero 4 learned for the very first time he has parents coming for him. (According to USPS tracking, our introductory family photobook cleared Chinese customs but has not yet arrived at its destination.)
And you can see the totally confused look in his eyes already: “Birthday cake? Stinkin’ new parents don’t even know when my real birthday is.”
Don’t worry, buddy, we have the rest of our lives to make it up to you. Eat cake and be merry.
We’re just over here reveling in the fact that you got free cake and we got free updates and in one week, we received TWO videos of the Chinese children our family talks about and prays for most! Videos that will now be on auto-play for the next two months until we can hold you in our arms. <3
Birthday cake re-mix was officially the best. Mistake. Ever. <3