May 1, 2008 - We Celebrate One Year from Referral Date

Unbelievably we reached the one year mark of seeing our precious Indigo's face for the first time last year on May 1, 2007. Many of our friends recalled their emotions of that day and we too, found ourselves reliving the roller coaster of emotions that we experienced. It was hard to believe that on May 1, 2007, that long waiting journey came to an end, and we saw the darling face of Ji Wen Zhou, born in Jiangxi province May 15 1006. The prior month we had been so bitterly disappointed when our 10/28/05 LID date did not make the cut off. Our group of friends all waiting together had been so very certain that we would be included and then rumors started that were rapidly proved true - it was not the month for us to see our daughters. That time was so hard and it took a lot to regroup and move on and wait for the next batch of referrals. Well, God bless the CCAA because they did not make us wait long and within less than a month rumors started flying that referrals were coming and this time our date was amongst them! Over the weekend I had been at a scrapping retreat with a bunch of girls (yeah, have not scrapped anything since then) but it was a fun get away with girls and I got to walk and read and watch the birds. It was at that time I saw my very first Indigo Bunting! I also saw multiple ladybugs that weekend. On Monday, it was impossible to do a stitch of work as we all kept relaying the rumors we were hearing about the referrals. I was freaking out because I had an event at the Patent Office on Tuesday which I was attending with colleagues from work, including someone from out of the office. Unbelievably, we kept it to ourselves (except for family) that news seemed imminent. Our agency confirmed with us that there was a stork alert and that the stork was on it's way to our agency. They told us that if on Tuesday we got an e-mail say that they had our referral then we would be phoned that day. David and I planned that he would go to work to see if the e-mail arrived and then he would come and get me from the Patent Office and we would go home together to receive the news. On my way to the USPTO with my colleagues I told them that I had to leave early because we were expecting the news - needless to say, I could barely concentrate at all but the event was really just a kudos for a beta in which we had participated. Anyway, to make a long story short, David got me (despite him being so ecstatic and wound up that he came to the wrong entrance and I had to run through the building to the other side to find him) and we drove home. He confirmed that the e-mail had come saying the agency had our referral! We sat by the phone and sure enough it rang - well, we tried to answer so fast that we hung up on them! We were freaking out. I can't remember if we ended up phoning them back or if they phoned us again - it was a blur. The referral counselor started giving us the baby's information and with shaking hand we tried to process and write down what she was telling us. I don't remember much except her saying - do you want to see her photos? Duh!!!! She sent them to us and we just cried and looked at her face. We eventually phoned parents and I choked out "we have our daughter" before just completely falling apart. I did not want to leave the computer because I did not want to stop looking at her. Eventually, our friend Tricie said we had to celebrate and to come over so we copied her photos to a cd and stopped at CVS to print them so we could keep looking and go to Tricie's house where we celebrated the news. I had to go to bed that night with her photo at the bedside table. Now, it's a year later since that day and she is our daughter and it's imcomprehensible that a year has passed. On that day, we were excited for us and on cloud nine. Since having her, I have reflected a lot on the fact that some incredible and wonderful woman, chose to have her baby and place her in a safe place where she would be found and ultimately become our daughter. We are so grateful to that woman and we only wish she could know that the daughter she gave birth to is LOVED, happy and safe. If it were not for China and the circumstances there involving the restrictions on numbers of children etc. we would not have our daughter and we are very much aware that our happiness is not without someone else having grief. As everyone with children knows, words cannot describe the love we feel for this child.
To celebrate the referral day we got together for dinner with Ellen, Rick and Sarah at our Canton Cafe and had a lovely celebration dinner with our girls.
Pictures of those first referral photos (we don't know how old she was then) and one year later, Indigo on May 1, 2008.