the long and winding road...

One day later...

and another picture! I'm sitting here waiting for DHL to bring my referral package. The office in our house, thankfully, faces the street. Every time a car drives past I look quickly to see if its the truck delivering my baby. I'm not quite sure why I'm so excited. My understanding is that everything we get today is in chinese. But I want to snap the delivery person's pic like I've seen in so many people's blogs, so cute!!

So, while I'm waiting, I'm going to record yesterday morning's events and the "Referral Call":

I had to work... I was so bugged. If I would have been more sure on friday that the referrals had been sent, I would have made arrangements to not have to work. By saturday, I was pretty sure we'd be getting our call on monday morning.

Sunday night I stayed up way too late snacking and watching the new shows on TV. This was done to keep my mind calm for monday. It worked pretty well.

Monday morning I woke up early and went right downstairs to check RQ blog. It said referrals were arriving in Europe and they'd be hitting the mid west agencies that morning as well. I was thrilled and NERVOUS!!! Called Bobbyat work and gave him the update. Ran upstairs and got ready for work as fast as I could go. Back down to check RQ, referrals were arriving on the east coast!!!! Called Bobby again. Called my mom said "its happening today, I've gotta go, I'll call you later"

At 8am I really had to leave the house. While driving, I called Bobby again then my secretary at work and asked her to check the Harrah's yahoo group for me. She told me HFS posted at 8:05am that referrals had arrived!! they were sorting through them!! and would be making calls that afternoon!! They're in Texas so that's 2 hours ahead of us. I figured they'd be calling my around 10am. By this time I was so nervous, I don't even think I could see straight.

I showed up at my appearance a complete and utter wreck, explained to my concerned opponent that I needed a continuance due to a "family issue" --Hello??? I'm having a baby here, I definitely think this qualified for a continuance, don't you?? Drove to the office, dropped off files, made some arrangements for my afternoon and next morning conferences to be covered and darted out the door. The plan being to go home, get the call, and then wait for Bobby to open emailed picture.

At 9:40am I was talking to Bobby while getting into the car when their was another call coming through. My heart stopped as I looked at the number... it was my AGENCY!!!! I told Bobby, hold on a second, its them!!!

Me: Hello.

Her: Susan??

Me: Yes.

Her: This is _____ from HFS, I...

Me: (interrupting) I know who it is!!!

Her: I have some news for you. You have a baby girl.

Me: (unintelligible utterance)

Her: She's just beautiful!! She's a beautiful baby girl and her hair (giggle) her hair is kind of sticking up on her head. She was born January 7th.

Me: What year??

Her: 2008.

Me: (crying) Can you hold on a sec? I want to write this down.

(it was only at this point that I realized I was not writing any of the info down, my pretty ladybug paper I had planned to create for documenting this moment had not been created--I'm not really sure why that was in that I had 3 yrs to do so... anyway. So then I start rummaging in my car for a pen and I do mean rummaging. I opened the glove box and started flicking things out onto the floorboard. Napkins, calculator, restaraunt coupons go flying. Aha!! A pen!!! Now paper... hmmm search, search. Aha again!! a post it!!!

Her: Her name is Zhang Nian Sheng. She's at the Zhangshu SWI in Jiangxi province. She weighs 7 kgs (I had no idea at the time but apparantly that's about 15 lbs) She said some other stuff too but I don't remember what it was. My mind went a little blank. She did say that the pix would be emailed within the hour and the referral packet would be sent to us by DHL the following day. Then that was it.

I called Bobby and told him: We have a little girl, almost 9 mos old!!! I told him about the orphanage and stuff too but Bobby says he couldn't understand a word I was saying!!! Since I was still in the parking lot of work, I ran back inside to share my good news with my co-workers. Hugs, hugs!!! I must have looked a little crazed because my boss actually asked if I needed someone to drive me home LOL!!

On the way home I called everyone to tell them "its a girl, its a girl, I have a baby!!!" I called Casey and caught him between classes "you have a sister!!" he seemed pretty happy!! I kept calling Brett at school but couldn't get ahold of him. Bobby couldn't leave work until 11am. He didn't think I could but I promised to wait to open the pix til he got home. I finally got Brett on the phone and told him. He was excited said "wow! this isn't just paperwork anymore, there's a real person now!"

I talked to Bobby from the time he left work and kept telling him "come on, drive, drive" Finally, he was home and we opened the email together...

First pic: mugshot. I've seen tons of these by now. Not usually the best shot. Totally understood the giggle about the hair. There's tons of it, coal black!!! She has very fair skin, cute as a button nose and lovely symmetrical features.

Second pic: sitting in the office chair. I was so excited because usually referral pix have the kids totally bundled up and you can't see their little bodies. Our little girl is wearing a short sleeved onesie (I think the pix were taken in July, when it is hot!!!). You can see her sweet little toes, squishy little arms, and chubby thighs!! First thought: she looks so healthy! She seems to be sitting up on her own too so it seems she's physically fairly well developed.

Third pic: in the waker. She's making a little smile. Its the one showing the most personality and was, at first blush, my favorite. Again, she looks healthy and well taken care of.

Then, more calls, posts to RQ and assorted yahoo groups!! Emails galore. A very happy day. Bobby printed out the pix. Bobby and I decided to do lunch (for some reason we didn't do chinese food as planned and did Olive Garden instead). We did take our printed picture with us to look at. Also put "her" in the cart at Costco, just for fun!

Since then, I can't stop looking at her pix. My baby. Finally, after all these years, I have a baby girl!!! I feel a ssnse of peace and calm I haven't felt in an awfully long time.