our gift of grace: October 2009

Warning - Very long post and they will continue as we hit all of our big dates over the next few months, "The Call," "The Meeting," and "One Year Adoption Day." (we will be celebrating in Disney World:)

It was one year ago today we got "The Call." What a whirlwind it has been since that day. Such a whirlwind that I never wrote about the day and never posted her REFERRAL PICTURE. I don't even think our families have seen the picture. (seriously)

Although I forget alot these days I still remember most of that day. It was Wednesday and just like every Wednesday we were expecting an update from our agency. At that point in the process we were expecting the same update we'd been getting every Wednesday ... "no children available at this time."

Our agency called around the normal time ... she said hello and how are you and then I heard her very casually say... "There's a little girl" I remember being hung up on the girl for a bit because we had assumed it would be a boy. I think she gave me her age and little background and asked if we wanted more information. Obviously we said yes! She said she would send us a picture and the information she had. More information would come in a week. My next call was to Dan.

I was scheduled to leave that Friday morning. Not a big deal but it was a work retreat in the Adirondacks ... which could mean no blackberry service. My agency assured me we would not get anymore information until the following week. Dan and I agreed to keep it to ourselves until we got more information. He was home alone all weekend and couldn't share the news and I was off on a work retreat and couldn't share much. Not easy after waiting two years.

Friday morning I left for my trip and we stopped for lunch ... I went outside to try and check my e-mail and I saw an e-mail from my agency with the subject line, "More information on XXXXX." Ahhhh! I tried to open it and lost service. I remember trying everything to get service the rest of the way, tried it when we got to where we were staying, tried it while I was trying to find my way out of a corn maze (seriously) .... finally in the car on our way to Lake Placid I got service. I reviewed the information and called the agency at 4:55 on a Friday. They answered all my questions and told me they secured the referral earlier in the day and to call them on Monday if we wanted to travel to meet her. I was alone in a co-workers car in the middle of a parking lot in Lake Placid. I called Dan and we decided .... WE'RE GOING TO RUSSIA.

We spent the rest of the weekend apart and finally when I got home on Sunday we got to tell our families and friends.

Here it is ....The picture that melted our hearts from across the world.