My 1st Anniversary

365 days ago I made my first post on blogspot..... I wasn't entirely sure about starting a blog. Would anybody read it? Would it help us find a baby? What really was the point of my blog?

Well, according to comments and hits on my profile... I probably have 3 or 4 devoted readers and quite a few lurkers :)

While Our Journey Home didn't help us find a baby, it was a way for Miss B and her family to learn more about us before Gabe's birth and allows them to see frequent updates about Gabe now that he's home with us.

And the point of my blog, while there were many initial reasons for blogging, some of them have changed. Opening our blog to the general public and linking it to as many places online as possible didn't result in us finding a birth mother but it cultivated some of the most amazing relationships I could imagine. And while IRL I haven't met many of these people (some we have), they are people I hold near and dear to my heart, pray for daily and think of often. They rejoice and pray with us as we marvel in Gabe's miraculous life and we rejoice and pray for them as well.

A means of communication this is, it's a bit more personal than facebook though not as quick and easy to update! But with every up, down and stand still we faced in our journey thus far, rather than making a million phone calls or sending out lots of emails, I was able to come to one place and let every one know how we were doing, what we were doing and what are next steps were going to be.

More than anything though, this blog has become a journal of our life.... a storybook of sorts of our journey to Gabe, to deepening our faith and finding our place in the world. I've recently learned you can turn your blog into books/scrapbooks, and that is certainly something I need to look into. This blog is not only about our journey to a family but about our journey of faith and the path we are taking to live the life we are called to live.

January 26, 2009; Matt and I lived in an itty-bitty 2 bedroom house in a way too expensive suburb of Cleveland Ohio.

January 26, 2010; we live in a much bigger 3 bedroom house in a much less expensive suburb of Cleveland.

January 26, 2009; Matt drove 30 minutes to work and I drove, well on a day without snow, about 40 minutes to work.

January 26, 2010; Matt still drives about 30 minutes to work, but I just have to walk across the hall to see my co-worker.

January 26, 2009; We were eagerly awaiting our first meeting with MCB

January 26, 2010; Now we are eagerly awaiting MCB to get all of our papers finalized so that this little one is officially a LaGorga!

Gabe's shirt says "i may be little but i serve a BIG GOD!" Isn't that how it is for all of us?

January 26, 2009; Matt and I were trying to be patient, trying not to wonder and trying to hold onto hope as we followed the path God was leading us on.

January 26, 2010; We've learned patience as we waited for God's plan, we learned not to wonder and just to trust and we learned that without hope, we had nothing... so our hope has remained in the Lord.

Only God knows where our journey will lead in the next year. And I'm okay with that... and while I will wonder about where our journey is going, when we'll add to our family, how we'll make everything work.... I know we'll end up exactly where we're supposed to be. I read this on a sign by our house (and while I'm sure if I looked I'd be able to find it, but I'd rather not waste time looking)

"The will of God won't take you where the grace of God won't cover you."

With that I've realized, throughout the adventures and misadventures of the past year God has led us, covered us and carried us the whole way. I am so blessed.

And boy do I love this little boy!