Two Years Ago Today Referral Anniversary

Two years ago today I was recovering from a tetanus shot. It was HORRIBLE. My arm was aching and I was running a fever. Two years ago today we were also waiting for our referral and our patience was wearing thin. Everyone kept saying that the perfect baby was just not ready and we would get our referral when she was ready, yada, yada, yada. Honestly I was getting sick and tired of waiting and the tetanus shot wasn't helping. There were three of us from our agency who had also been waiting for a baby girl since the end of June. One mom (michellesmiles) spoke with her caseworker earlier that day and pretty much got the feeling that we would be waiting longer. We were angry and disappointed to say the least.


Two years ago today imagine my surprise when the phone rang at 9:10pm and FTC came across the caller ID. I remember feeling like crap from the shot. I was getting ready to go to bed and when the phone rang I wasn't happy about getting it. I checked the caller ID, saw our agency, and answered the phone shocked. The agency owner asked if she woke me up. All I could say was no. There aren't many times when I am speechless but this was one of them. I was silent, wondering could this actually be it. I had played this moment over and over again in my head prior to receiving the call. I thought I would be excited and screaming uncontrollably but instead I was shocked and silent.


She then told us about a 'beautiful baby girl named Ana'. The rest of the conversation is a blur. I remembered her saying something about an email with the referral documents and letting her know if we would accept (duh of course we would!). Steve came up stairs and we immediately called our parents. I called my mom who was sleeping. My mom doesn't have a computer so she wanted to drive out to our house which is 30 minutes away. I was worried about her driving since she was sleeping and told her no. She decided she would go to the neighbors. Steve's parents came over to see pictures. So we waited and waited for the emails which seemed like an eternity. Finally they came through and when we opened up the first picture of Gabbie our lives changed forever.


This is one of the pictures we received that night:)




She was so tiny and perfect. In the pictures she was 3 days old, 5lbs 1oz and just 16.7 inches long. There she was our baby girl we had been waiting for.



This is Gabbie last year on 9/13/07 in her bed right after waking up. Excuse the bed-head!

This is Gabbie this year on 9/13/08.

She is still petite at 23.4 pounds, 34 inches and still our perfect baby girl. There are so many things I love about adoption. One of my favorites is celebrating all of the anniversaries. We have the referral anniversary (9/13), first time we held her anniversary (12/7), out of PGN anniversary (1/18), the day we held her forever anniversary (2/5), and the day she came home forever (2/8).

Today we celebrate the referral anniversary. It is such a special day to me. I cannot believe it has been two years already.