Flashback

Yesterday, February 1, was the anniversary of our "Referral Day". This is the most exciting day for an adoptive family as it means you are finally matched to your child. We had heard through the rumors online and from emailing other families that the referrals may come on February 1. It was a Thursday. They said that they were being delivered by DSL to the agency, but then they would all(28 families total) have to be translated before anyone was called so there was nothing to do but wait...We decided that we probably wouldn't get "the call" before the afternoon so Jimmy went to work for a while. We tried to conference call but that didn't work between the phones we had. We then planned that I would take the call if it came and record it, call Jimmy right away and tell him everything, then he'd listen to the recording when he got home. I had my coat on to go out for a quick errand at 10 a.m. and the phone rang! It was our Social Worker and I scrambled to sit down and get the recording going and get my pen out and try to slow down my heart rate. She told me as much as she could about our baby and I called Jimmy right away but couldn't get him! I left a crazy voice mail and waited, clapping and jumping up and down all by myself because I was so excited. No call back...I was literally trotting up and down the stairs chanting,"call me, call me..", my adrenaline was so high.Finally I tried another number at the jobsite(after leaving 2 more voice-mails I think), got the Foreman and told him to get Jimmy to call me right away. He did and we were both so excited, he came home right away and had pink balloons to put outside. We spent the rest of the day calling everyone we knew, hugging and staring at the scribbled information I had written. It was amazing. The hardest part was that we couldn't see her pictures until Tuesday! That was a long weekend but so full of joy too. Today's post is the original referral photos that we were given that Tuesday, February 6 last year. The Social Worker left us alone in the office for privacy and handed Jimmy the manilla envelope. We looked at our beautiful baby and cried with joy. We are so blessed with our Laina. It was the birth of a family, what we call in the adoptive world our "Forever Family".