5 years and counting.......

Yesterday was our 5th year anniversary of Natalie's referral day!  I can not believe that she has been in our lives for 5 years.  It seems like yesterday and forever, all at once.  

Jon and I will never forget that wonderful day.  We knew that we were going to be getting our referral call, the referral packets were due to arrive on the 25th from China, it was just a matter of them coming from the airport to our agency.  We knew that the delivery service usually comes just before noon, so at about 11am Jon and I began our pacing.  The hours passed and still no call.  Thankfully, we live in the computer age, because without that we would have been frantic.  We found out that the delivery service had gotten lost, delayed, waylaid, or something, but the packets were 'in transit'.  So we continued to pace.  Just before 6pm our time, the phone rang.  Time stood still........Neither one of us moved.....we just looked at each other....one second, two seconds......then we both scrambled to the phone.  "Congratulations, you have a beautiful daughter!"  

 We rushed to the computer, waiting for the e-mail that would contain a tiny picture....THE picture!  Of course, it took   f.o.r.e.v.e.r!  Slowly the e-mail came up, slowly her precious face was revealed.  And in the blink of an eye, our lives were forever changed.  We fell hopelessly in love with a tiny little girl in a over-sized red outfit.  Two more pictures followed, but they were just icing on the cake.  We looked at those pictures, tears streaming down our faces, amazed at how perfect she was (and still is!).  What had we ever done to be so Blessed?  

 

 I can't remember much more of the conversation with our agency, just that our referral packet would be arriving in the next couple of days and IF we wanted this child???  our acceptance letter was in the packet.  We would need to fill it out and send it back.  I do remember thinking "IF? IF? Are you kidding me?!!?!?"  Needless to say, the minute we received our acceptance letter, it was signed, notarized and overnight-ed back!  


Both Jon and I knew that the moment we answered the phone, that our lives had irrevocably.  We had become a Family.  

I have said that the moment I saw Natalie's face for the first time, the clouds opened, the sun began to shine with a new glow and color returned to my black & white world.  To this day, I still feel this way.