Referral Day Anniversary

One year ago today, I got the most wonderful phone call of my life. At 6 in the morning, I half heartedly checked the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs website and saw that my log in date had been included in the batch of matched children. I was elated. I remember screaming and calling my mom and yelling, "I'm in, I'm in!!!". I then anxiously carried my phone around with me all day and at 1 o'clock in the afternoon my caller id said "Lifelink". I answered the phone giddy with excitement and my social worker, Jennifer said, "Are you ready for me to change your life?". I was so excited I couldn't stop giggling as I quickly pulled over the car into some stranger's yard in order to take notes and concentrate on the phone call.

I found out that there was a little girl named Nan Zi Yun who was waiting for me at the Maoming Social Welfare Institute (orphanage) in Guangdong Pronvince, People's Republic of China. I knew she was born on January 16, 2006. That was about all I found out that day. I was so thrilled! I ran into my next school and told one of the teachers, "I'm a mommy!". It was amazing.

The following day, on the third of November, I drove with my mom and Konnor up to Sarasota to Lifelink's office to see pictures of my baby girl. She was and is so beautiful. It is amazing to look at a picture and know that that is your daugther. To know that she is halfway around the world and has no idea how her life is going to change. To then know that there is a little baby who is your daughter, whom you have never met, not knowing how loved she is by people who have never seen her.

So, this is the anniversay of one of the best days of my life. I look at her now (as she is trying to fit into her plastic toy shopping cart, not successfully, I must say) and am so amazed I am so blessed to be her mommy.