Day 1 of 'official' visits

We got to see our beautiful daughter again today - although it was the second time we have seen her it very much felt like day 1.

The day began with a trip to the scenic Port Talbot (:-/) for a meeting to plan out the next week or so. To cut a long story short, we anticipate being able to bring her home on Tuesday 19th (week tomorrow).

We then made the journey west to see our daughter and she was adorable as she was the first time we saw her!

Once again, her smile lit up the room and she was keen to read books and play toys with us- precious moments.

No kisses and cuddles (will definitely need to make up for this one day!) which is hard when you just want to pick her up and hug her! She is quite shy and slightly wary of us, every now and again backing up into a little corner which obviously makes her feel secure. To be honest, who can blame the poor girl when an ugly looking man walks into her home!

Whilst this experience has been different so far, we already feel so much love for her. And her foster carers, from their perspective, believe things are going really well which is great.

To date, we haven't mentioned her name! Well, although we are restricted in what we can do right now, our plan is to gradually introduce her new name to her - Hope.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. Please continue to pray for us, specifically that a bond would really begin to develop over the next few days. Please also pray for our boys, that they would experience grace throughout this process - we introduce them to her on Wednesday.

Tomorrow begins with a trip to Swansea to speak to Hope's medical adviser (standard procedure) and then we go to see her in the afternoon and do the bed time routine.

We've packed our bags as tomorrow we are going to stay in Merthyr until Friday...

Another day closer, another day where we have experienced the goodness and grace of God.