One Year Ago...

I became a big sister once again! We were in Hall*mark shopping for Father's Day presents when Mom's cell phone rang (thankfully she had it... she doesn't always!) She took her phone out of her purse to answer and I noticed that it was a 703 area code. My heart started pounding as a realized that a 703 area code was most likely America World calling. I think my heart just about beat out of my chest as I realized that this was THE CALL. The call we had been waiting for. We were told her special needs were anemia and that she had a hemangioma, that she was 15 months old and was from Jiangxi. I immediately called Dad while Mom was talking. We had a huge storm the night before and had no phone or internet at home, so we decided to drive down to Dad's office, about 30 minutes away, to pull up her precious pictures. Mom wanted to wait to see her pictures before we locked the file (we knew it was AC by her pictures) but the coordinator warned that she was on the shared list and she might be gone in 45 minutes. We prayed about it and decided that her special need was definitely one we could handle, she was a great age... why wouldn't we lock her? So we did. Mom, AnnaClaire, and I could not have gotten to Dad's office fast enough. Mom and I were hypervenalating the entire time. We called Laura (one of the "chatty girls") to tell her that we had just locked the file of a birthmark baby (her sweet Lucy is one of the reasons we marked hemangioma on our special needs check list!) and to let everyone (as in all the "chatties") know and to pray. We finally got to Dad's office, where he met us and brought us up to his cube, where his computer was on. This precious picture was pulled up... Our sweet girl. Our "Ling XuLiu" who would become Katherine MeiLing. The baby girl we had been praying for. The pictures confirmed to us that this was our girl. We had 48 hours to get her file checked over by our pediatrician and to write/submit our LOI. We stopped for a quick lunch, brought her file to the ped, left it with a nurse, emailed our pediatrician (on Dad's blackberry... yes, we still had no internet!) to tell her that Nurse Emily had the file of a sweet baby girl, and to let us know what she thought. Mom and I then went off to Panera (free wifi!) because we just HAD to let friends know that we had locked the file of a baby girl. Mom then dropped me off at my summer league swim meet and when I got home, our ped had emailed back, letting us know that XuLiu was a "keeper", and our LOI had been written and faxed to AWAA.

So that's the story of Kate's refferal day. It is a day that will forever be engraved in my mind, and I do not think I will ever forget the details of June 12, 2008, the day my heart grew once again... to love three sweet pictures of a little girl we honestly didn't know much about. We knew she was 15 months old, was anemic, and had a hemangioma, and was from Shangrao CWI in Jiangxi, China. (although we later found out she was living at the Philip Hayden Foundation!) We were told that she was active, restless, adorable, in love with her nanny, and that she sometimes lost her temper. We were told some of her developmental skills and that she was a deep sleeper. We were told that she smiled readily, liked to play, and loved listening to music. If you really think about it, we had barely any info on our sweet girl, yet I was so in love with what we DID know about her. It's fun to look back and see how she was described... you could still use all of those descriptions in talking about our precious Kate. Yet, a year later, she is so much more than 3 little pictures and a page of information. She is our smiley, playful, music-loving, active, sometimes crabby (but always cute:)), deep sleeping, adorable two year old little girl. And I love her oh-so-much!

I am so thankful for the way that she became a part of our family, through a phone call we got while standing in the middle of Hall*mark! I cannot believe that day was a year ago today! What an amazing, perfect day that was. So glad that this year, we can celebrate WITH the little girl who June 12, 2008 was all about. I love you so much, Katherine MeiLing! Happy Referral Day!

O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago. Isaiah 25:1