A year and three months.

That’s how long we’ve known and loved and prayed for and ADORED the then 7-year-old girl with the sparkly extra chromosome who invaded our hearts and our lives with a vim and vigor and vivaciousness we will never, ever forget.

But that spunky, spicy girl — the one who caused our boys to relabel her superpower “Up Syndrome” — she’s been waiting much longer to be known and heard and seen and loved.

1770 days to be exact.

That’s how long Lan Jun Qing has lived in an orphanage.

How many days she has spent away from a family she had likely known for the first four years of her life. (She was found in front of a nursing home at what doctors evaluated her to be age 4.)

How many days she has spent being cared for only by people who are paid to do so.

A number. A file. A label.

Foundling.

Orphan.

1770.

And Orphan Warriors, it is the thrill of my life to tell you that today, IT IS NOT ONE DAY MORE.

Because yesterday in Changsha, China, that host child we fiercely love walked into a government office as an orphan … and walked OUT as a DAUGHTER!

Joy JunQing is no longer a statistic or a faceless file. Today, she is a SISTER! A DAUGHTER! A cherished and CHOSEN and adored child of a family OUR family cherishes and adores ourselves.

Yesterday in China, the Kreh family chose Joy — in so many more ways than one. (Read their crazy God story HERE.)

And this girl whose pictures are puddle-fying me hourly is already settling in.

Easily allowing her new mama to bathe her and brush her teeth.

Bonding and bossing (oh, to know sweet Bossy Pants is alive and well!) the sister she clearly already loves and respects.

Mimicking every action and routine and following this fabulous (Angela said she doesn’t know what she would have done without this huge helper!) big sister’s lead.