Tuesday, December 9, 2008

3 years ago today.....

I sat at my computer chatting online with my travel group anxiously waiting the call for Katie's referral. We expected our referral the day before but there was a snow storm in Texas and our agency that is located in Texas closed for the snow storm. So we had to wait another day for Katie's referral. I waited all day at my computer desk. My travel group made a pact that when the first referral call was made that they would post it on the group so we all knew the calls were coming in. Dan had the video camera set up on the tripod ready to capture the moment. I had my paperwork with all the questions I was going to ask ready on the computer desk. Karen, Jeff, Bailey, and Brady were over too. We were all waiting and waiting. I couldn't even type to my travel group anymore. I was rocking back and forth in the computer chair like I was in labor while Karen typed to my travel group for me. Then it started, someone from my travel group got the call. When was our call coming????? Finally at 4:38 pm est the call came. I was told they had a little girl for us born in March. Her name was Qi Jia Min. She was 9 months old from Hubei province. She was in foster care. They were going to e-mail us her picture. When we opened the e-mail she was the most beautiful little baby we ever saw. Luckily we have the whole thing on video. Because it was a blur of excitement. Bailey was running through the house yelling .."Her birthday is in March, her birthday is in March!!!". Bailey was excited because her birthday is in March too. My Mom arrived just in time to see Katie's picture come through on the computer. Jeff opened a bottle of Dom Perignon to celebrate. We didn't get any pictures on my camera but luckily my Mom did. We were too excited. I have a few pictures to post. My Mom is going to give me her pictures tomorrow to post.

Then we invited our friends over that we met during the wait to celebrate our referral and there referrals. Two of the families were from my same agency and would travel with us. We celebrated with Chinese food and everyone brought there referral pictures and we had such a good time. Little did we know that Laura and Kevin were celebrating 10 minutes away from us. Laura and Kevin got there referralthat day too but we didn't know them yet. I met Laura after were got home from China in the supermarket.

What great memories.....enjoy the pictures!

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Me and Karen sitting at the computer desk waiting for the call. See the video camera in the corner of the picture.

kathleen

Katie's referral photos. I guess they scanned them like this because this is how I have them on the disc. I can't figure out how to separate them.

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Proud Mama's Left to right....Kim with Hannah's picture, Me with Katie's picture, Kate with Lia's picture, Kellyann with Taylor's picture, and Karen with Mia's picture.

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These girls are now all friends. We get them together often. We have a wonderful local adoption group and it all started with the 5 of us Mom's waiting for our babies to come home.

12 comments:

Missy said...

Happy Referral Day!!! These anniversary days always choke me up. I love your recount of that special day. You have been so blessed! How cool that you all traveled together. Katie Min Min was a beautiful baby!!!

Joy said...

Happy Referral Day to you too! I forgot about the freak snowstorm in Austin that day. I get my two referral days mixed up sometimes and there was something that delayed Allison's referral too. I can't remember though... :-)

Joy

Kate said...

Oh...my....good thing everyone will be looking at the pictures of the babies....because stress was not our friend (at least not mine..don't mean to drag you all down...you guys look good!). What a great day!!! I hope you post part of your video sometime!!! Priceless!!!

Half Gaelic, Half Garlic! said...

Happy Referral Day!!

What a special day that you will always remember....and the fact that you all got your referrals the same day makes it even more special!

Love the group shot....all of you with your sweet little photos in hand!! I think you should post the video too:)

Hope you had a special day with Katie Min Min!!

Lisa

trina said...

Awww..I love referral day!! Sweet,precious memories.
Hey, you have been tagged. Come on over and see the rules. It's an easy one.

MIMI06 said...

A wonderful day to remember! A different day then the usual waiting for the baby to come type of day, but one we will cherish the rest of our lives and well worth the wait for our percious Katie Min Min

Love Mimi

Laura said...

Awww!!! I wish I had met you all before. We would have been at the White Swan together. Happy 3rd!!

Laura

Unknown said...

Happy Referral Anniversary! Can you believe it has been 3 years? Feels like 3 minutes! I sure do remember seeing Katie's pics.. what a sweet face... we Moonbeams sure got lucky!

Congrats!
Missy & EFP & EBB

Doug and Terrye said...

What a happy memory! We didn't realize it during the wait, but we soon found out that it was well worth the wait :)

Terrye in FL

Jboo said...

Happy Anniversary!! What a sweet post and fun to see all of you and your referral photos! Your little Katie was so tiny and sweet, wasn't she!!

Janet

Sue said...

Happy Belated Referral Day! We will always be connected knowing we all spent that glorious day the same way. I love your recount of waiting that day. The final few hours for me were brutal and then it all melted away when I saw Alexa's sweet face.
: ) Sue

Ivy Shaffer said...

HAPPY REFERRAL DAY! That is so cool that you took pictures of yourself waiting for the referral! I didn't think of that. How nice that so many of you could get together to celebrate such a wonderful, memorable day. OOOH CAN'T WAIT TO MEET THEM!

IVY