One Year Ago Today....

11:30 am came the phone call that would change our lives forever!

Phone: Ring!

Me (caller ID) Laura? (SW)

Laura: (teasing me and matching my intonation) JoAnn?

Me: News?

Laura: Referral!

I was able to conference Kurt in on the line and we got the news that we were matched to a baby girl who was born on 7/9/05 and was currently living in the Huai Hua SWI in Hunan Province. We would most likely travel in March. There were 19 other families in our travel group. Her name was Huai Shuang and it was reported she was healthy.

Now, I have to tell you that my brain basically stopped working once Laura told us we had a baby girl. I couldn't even tell you how old she was! (I had to get a co-worker to figure that out for me!) 6.5 months at referral! :) I was in shock that this day had finally come (although I knew it was coming!) and that she was so young! AND she was from the province I always secretly wanted her to be in... Ever since I'd heard of the tales of the "spicy" Hunan girls I've always thought it would be cool to have my own Hunan Spice Girl.

My agency is rather old fashioned and does not email baby's information or Fed Exp it to you. What they do is translate everyone's information and send it to their offices. You then make an appointment to go over every bit of paper they give you and this is when you see your child's photo for the first time. (BTW, I knew this all along and was perfectly okay with it. I needed a few days to digest all the good news coming our way!)

So, Huai Shuang was our baby and she was young and in the province I've wanted her to be in. But what did she look like? What would we call her? We had a few names we liked (I liked, anyway, Kurt wasn't quite sure) and would choose her name based on her photos. We finally saw her face on the following Tuesdsay.

I didn't care if I thought she was beautiful... I practiced saying "I don't care what she looks like, she's mine! and she'll grow to be beautiful! (I didn't have much hope that God would give us a young, perfectly healthy, great province BEAUTIFUL child.) That was asking too much. But my Angels in Heaven were looking out for us (Thanks Daddy and Dad!) .

And this is who we saw....Kelsey!

Kelsey, this wasn't love at first sight...we loved you the second we heard you were ours...one year ago today! (yes, Mommy is crying, but they are great big happy tears!)