The Long-Awaited Referral Day!

Thursday morning started out very ordinary. I spent some time in the morning e-mailing the NBC USCIS unit in Missouri about our U.S. approval. I was feeling very positive about all of that after I spoke with a kind adjudication officer who said she'd "get right on it." All I had to do was x, y, and z, translated as fill out a call to action form, photocopy our original homestudy and send a copy of our current U.S. approval.

I checked Rumor Queen like I'd been doing for days to see if anything new had been reported. All I knew was that some kind of packages had been mailed from Beijiing. No one knew that it was postively referrals or which agencies were going to be calling. I seriously thought it would be the following week before we'd even begin to hear something definitive from our agency.

So, when Ava went down for a nap, I took a shower and then came downstairs to check my cell phone messages - just in case. When I heard the China program Director's voice, I pretty much lost emotional control! She said, "I'm trying to reach you to tell you that we received your referral this morning!" I started screaming and jumping up and down. Ava didn't wake up which is hard to believe. I called Ben at work immediately and could barely speak because I was so emotional. I was literally shaking. He said he'd come on home so we could open the e-mail attachment together.

So, twenty minutes later, in he walked and here's where the revelation and celebration of Maia begins! We set up the camera to capture the exact moment we saw her picture!



Ava wakes up and comes down to see her baby sister for the first time. Now, she says, "More Maia, more Maia." She loves to look at her picture.







Mom and Dad came as quickly as they could to see her and it was VERY emotional to say the least!



Our first "family of four" photo!



Very excited! We called Ben's parents immediately, too, to share the good news, and they celebrated with us from Maryland!



To celebrate, we went out to eat.. you guessed it, CHINESE!



Ava ate her first fortune cookie!



I keep staring at her little picture imagining what she's doing across the ocean from me. All we have to do will keep me busy during this waiting time. It's still so very surreal! Maia Grace is coming home to our little family. The dream I had several years ago "in the waiting" is becoming reality! More on that later... I've saved that special story to share with you.

Praise the Lord!