Selah Found the Swain in Her Step!

The day after Gotcha Day was a big day. Huge. God-sized stuff happened on the fronts in Jiangxi Province. On July 21, 2014, Selah not only became a Swain officially, but she found her smile too! For those of you who have walked with us through this process from day one until now, you understand how BIG it is that not only God but the government declares this little girl as belonging in our family. That she is in fact our daughter, and that we are her parents. We are delighted beyond description. Much has led up to this moment to say, "It is official!!! Selah Grace AnLi Swain!"

The orphanage director and assistant director were overjoyed for us!

And yet something equally remarkable and praiseworthy happened today. I like to think of it as her finding the Swain in her step. ;) Our sweet AnLi smiled!!! For the past five months as we received over 100 pictures of her and heard reports from the two visits that Superkids made to her orphanage, she has not shown a hint of a smile. Many of her pictures gave the impression that she wasn't about to budge either. Our dear friend who is a Superkids team member as well as the person who matched us with Selah shared with us before we left that it as going to take substantial time for her to warm up. She also shared that they did everything except stand on their heads to get her to smile, and she was unphased. In many ways, we came into this process thinking that it may be weeks, months, possibly longer before we would see that smile to light a million rooms. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would see it in less than 24 hours. But we did! Selah found her smile!

You know how they say a picture can tell a thousand words? In this case, I think it is suitable to let the pics do the storytelling. Our hearts are filled with joy that no longer than an hour after being declared a member of our family, that Selah found the Swain in her step!