We celebrated Catherine’s (Fujuan’s) 4th birthday last week (March 17th). I think she fully enjoyed the event with the cake and candles and presents. Catherine is into Princess everything, as most little girls seem to be lately, and she was "the little princess". It cracks me up how she knows about this stuff since we watch very little TV and what we do watch is usually DVDs and usually educational.
Personally, it felt joyous but a little strange as this was Fujuan’s (Catherine’s) fourth birthday but it was her first birthday as Catherine Fujuan Krol. With our other children, Christina and I were there at the beginning and we remember the days each was born in vivid detail. We do not have that with Catherine and it is reminder that she had a 3-year history of which we know very little.
In our day-to-day, we lose sight of that fact that Catherine has only been with us a short time as it seems she has been with us all always. We hardly think of her as “adopted” anymore. It is only birthdays or when I have to fill out forms that I think about it much (or when our social worker comes to visit). We may not have a memory of the day Catherine was born but we do have “Gotcha Day” forever etch upon our minds and hearts. And we have Catherine with us every day in her forever family.
Blessings
Stan
