A Special Day

I just have a minute (shocking, I know) but I couldn't let this day pass without mentioning what a sweet memory is attached to May 1st. This time last year I was on my computer looking at a picture of the cutest little Chinese boy and wondering if we would become my son. I remember thinking that it couldn't be this easy; we had just decided two weeks prior to go ahead with another adoption. We knew we wanted a country that required one trip (most likely China); we knew we wanted a toddler-age boy; and we knew we wanted to go the waiting child route, with preference to boys with mild to moderate heart problems. We hadn't started any paperwork, hadn't begun to research agencies, nothing. Then the Friday afternoon of Derby week (those from my area will understand the craziness that surrounds this week), while getting ready for dinner with our dear friends Rachel and Darren
I received an email from an intake coordinator of an adoption agency (with whom I had talked previously about our desire for a toddler sn boy). She mentioned their agency had a new list of waiting children that included many toddler boys and suggested I take a look. She did say that although the list had just been released the previous day, there were already many families in line to review most of the files. I went to the website to glance at the list, expecting to see all of the children that might be a fit for our family to have long waiting lists. I found two little boys that jumped out at me and inquired about the possibility of reviewing the files. Imagine my surprise when she emailed back saying they were both still available and asking which file I would like to review. I immediately told her the number of the little boy that looked so stoic in his picture, but had a little twinkle in his eye. As we were driving to dinner, we received his file and I quickly skimmed through his medicals. I am no doctor but from what I could tell, his sn looked pretty straight-forward and one that we would be able to handle. As luck would have it, Rachel's daughter (adopted from Kyrg like our HD) had the same condition and had just undergone open-heart surgery to correct it. I wasn't ready to share this potentially exciting news until our pediatrician had reviewed the medicals but within five minutes of sitting down to dinner, I was busy picking Rachel's mind about the particulars of this sn and what I could expect. I left feeling little butterflies of excitement in my stomach but trying desperately not to get my hopes up that this might actually work out. I met with our pediatrician that Sunday (so nice having a pedi that is a close family friend) and he thought the medicals looked good but wanted to pass them on to a pediatric cardiologist just to be safe. Waiting to hear back from the cardiologist seemed like the longest three days of my life. I tried desperately not to get attached to the three little pictures we had of him, but it was too late. He had completely captured my heart. I cried tears of joy when our pedi called back and said "Go get that little boy. He looks great." I couldn't believe it. Could it really be that easy? Of course, nothing in adoption is ever that easy when you factor in paperwork, social worker visits, dealing with two different governments, delay after delay. But all in all, it was probably the smoothest adoption we've ever had. Less than ten months later, the little boy that captured my heart become our son. We discovered he is anything but stoic, but he definitely always has that twinkle in his eye. Now one year later, I still am in amazement at how easily everything fell into place. And I still pinch myself everyday to make sure that this is all real and that this sweet little boy is actually my son. Of course it is not all sunshine and rainbows around here...the honeymoon period has started to fade for everybody as we settle down into our everyday life. But I still think that I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

The serious little boy that captured my heart

And, one year later, the sweet little face that I see everyday
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