Four Year Referral Anniversary!

Then and Now

Four years ago today we drove got a call, got Dayton out of school early, drove across the state, and saw our little girl's face for the first time!

Today marks the 4 year anniversary of receiving Myah's referral and seeing her beautiful little face for the first time. Words can never describe the emotions that we felt that day. We waited so long to see our little girl's face and receive her information. When you adopt from China you don't know anything other than the fact that you want a baby girl until you receive your referral and learn which child the Chinese think you are best paired with.

It is hard to remember life before Myah entered our family. She is ours in every way, the time we spent in China seems like a distant memory, she has blossomed into a beautiful, smart, caring and compassionate little girl. We are forever thankful that God placed it on our hearts to adopt, our family has been so blessed to have Myah in our lives.

Referral Day 3 Year Anniversary

I am still in awe at how far she has come!

We bought her a small rose plant today.

I told her not to smile so she could look like she did in her referral picture and she kept laughing, here is one that worked!

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of receiving Myah's referral. I will never forget how elated we were that day, it was incredible to see the face of the little girl who we would be traveling across the world to meet and welcome into our lives. She became our daughter at that very moment. The moment that Mary opened the envelope and pushed the little pictures across the table. We knew when we saw a picture of her on a police car that she was always meant to be ours. I remember distinctly just staring at her pictures, I carried them with me everywhere and went to bed with them on my nightstand. I was trying to encrypt her face into my mind. I feel like such a heel, I thought that her referral day was tomorrow, I don't know how I got confused. Thanks to my good buddy Sheri for calling me and reminding me that it was today. We always spend it together, life has just got busy for us and hopefully soon we celebrate in person. Referral day would never have been as special if it weren't for those wonderful families that we got to share it with. We did manage to squeeze in a Chinese dinner tonight along with a little cake and flowers! Myah looked at photo albums today of when we were in China and she was full of questions and very intrigued! I can't wait till she can understand it all. Someday.

Happy Referral Day sweet girl, we love you more than we could have every expected!

Our Myah, Then and Now

Referral Day 2006 Sweet Memories

click on the image to read the captions

A Letter from Dad ...Special Encore Presentation

As we reflect on what this day means to our family, I can't help but remember the love that I felt for Myah, from the moment I heard her name, she was mine. Ours. We were her parents and big brother. We had a daughter, finally, after 10 years of waiting, we got to make "those " calls again. I will never forget tracking the package online, knowing that it had made it to our agency, calling my adoption buddies, driving across the state to see her face for the first time, and sharing that special day and moment with our friends and seeing their daugther's faces for the first time. It was perfect, that is all I can say....perfect. My dear sweet husband surprised me the night that we received Myah's referral with this beautiful letter that he wrote to her and asked if I could post it on our other website for her. I did not know that he had wrote anything and this completely amazed me, they were the sweetest, most genuine words that I had ever heard. Mark has such a tender heart and while I was reading it the tears were streaming down his face. You hear from me all of the time, I thought it would be special to share his thoughts from that day as well. I think he sums up everything that we were feeling just perfectly.
A letter from Dad
April 27, 2006
Myah...
I want to share my thoughts with you as we wait to come and bring you home. There is so much excitement surrounding your arrival. We have asked God so many times to bless us with another child and until now He has asked us to wait. Sometimes we wondered why we had to wait so long but we had faith that God was leading us where He wanted us to go. Last January, God finally said that it was time and today he has blessed us with you!
God knew long ago that he was going to bless our family by bringing us together.
We want you to know that you are already loved and will continue to be loved by us forever. You will never again be alone, you will never yearn for affection, you will never wonder if you are loved, and you will always have a warm and loving home to call your own.
I also want to tell you a little bit about your Mom, Leslie. Let me start by saying that she is the most caring and loving person that I know. I was blessed when she chose to spend her life with me and you will be blessed by this as well. God could not have chosen a more loving and compassionate person to be your Mom. Your Mom is so excited and anxious to come and bring you home. She has always looked at little girl’s clothes and wondered what it would be like to love and pamper her own daughter … and now she will wonder no more. You and your mother deserve each other and you both will complete each other. She prays for you every day asking God to watch over you and keep you safe. The day that we finally see you and are able to hold you is the very day that God has been preparing us for. When your Mom holds you in her arms for the first time, you will have not doubt that you are loved and you are safe. In fact, I am sure that God has already comforted your heart, knowing that you are loved very much.
What about your big brother, Dayton ?!!!! Well, he is so excited to come and get you. He has been praying every night for you and he always says, “And God bless Myah”. How cool is it that you have a big brother that is asking God to watch over you. He loves you so much and that is the neat thing about your brother, he loves you because you’re his little sister. In fact, last January he came to your mother and I and told us that he would like a little sister – I think this had a lot to do with your friend, Whitney (you will get to meet and play with her very soon). Also, I hope you like baseball because as soon as we get you home, Dayton is going to want you to watch him play ball.
Myah, I just want you to know that your big brother will always watch over and protect you and will love you with all his heart.
Today when we went and got your referral we met our other parents there and we were able to see pictures of your other friends who are coming home with you. You will be so blessed to grow up and make lifelong friends and memories with these girls, some of which you have known since birth.
So many of our friends and family have been praying for us and especially for you. We are surrounded by a special group of people in our lives and we could not ask for anything more. We can’t wait to get you home so everyone can enjoy you!!!
Each and every day, Myah, I pray that God will wrap his loving arms around you and comfort your heart; knowing that soon we will come and bring you home. I pray that your wonderful caregivers will watch over you and keep you safe; please know that the hugs and kisses that they give you are extensions from us. We are so blessed to be your parents; you will bring so much love to our family.
We will be there soon!! You're in God's hands now and we know that he will keep you safe until we get there!!
I love you,
Dad

Referral Anniversary Reflections

Tomorrow marks our second referral day anniversary. This was such a magical time in our lives for us. I am so thankful that I wrote all of this down because I have forgotten so much of it, and reading my thougths just takes me right back to that precious moment in time. I am sorry this is long, I had posted all of this on my other website and really wanted to preserve it on my blog as well.
Breathe, Breathe, Breathe!!
April 25, 2006
Ok, I was getting Dayton ready for school this morning and Linda V. called to see if I was going to water aerobics around 7:30 am. Mark beeped in and asked if I had checked the CCAA website and I told him no and he said that it had been updated overnight and that they are sending out referrals for people logged in between May 31 and June 6th!!!! We made it finally!!!! I couldn't believe it! Everyone said that around the 25th things happen and once again the rumors were right. So obviously I skipped water aerobics because I wasn't sure if I needed to be home or not today. We have since learned that the packages were mailed out on Tues in China ( they are 12 hours ahead of us). So we are expecting that maybe this week we will have our referral in our hands! Can it really be happening? It has been a year since we saw our documents last, and 4 months prior to that of preparing them. It has been a long wait but one that we are sure is worth it! Dayton's 11th birthday is Monday May 1st, what a gift it would be to have her info by then! My head is spinning today and I am really not accomplishing much, I can't complete many thoughts ( which is probably pretty evident if you are reading this!). I am so thankful and grateful to God that this is finally happening! I can't imagine what she will look like, what her birthday is, where she is etc..... ! She is ours now, even though we will just be staring at her picture for a while, she is already in our hearts and we love her. My stomach is doing flips, this is a much different type of labor than what I had with Dayton! Longer too!!! As soon as we can we will post her picture on our homepage so that you may all get your first glimpse of her too! It warms our hearts to know that we have been surrounded by so many loving people throughout these long months. Your excitement has made this experience just that much sweeter. Thank you everyone!!! There are so many more exciting moments to come and we look forward to sharing them with you!


What a day!!
April 27, 2006
I am going to have to write later, I think I am running out of steam, it is late, but I wanted to say something today! We always wondered how this day would feel, I can honestly say I never imagined that it could be so wonderful. I have been smiliing all day. She is so adorable, I can't believe her hair! I can hardly wait to accessorize! It is a good thing that the only thing I have been buying is hair bows! This day was magical and spent sharing this news with all of our loved ones. We were able to share this moment with some very special families and it is a day I will cherish for the rest of my life. The girls are just beautiful, we are so lucky. We were bummed to learn that our group was split up, unfortuately my buddies are split up, but at least we have 2 going one direction and 2 going another so we each have someone, in addition to the other great families that we will be with. And it will only be for the middle part, we start out together and end together. We laughed, cried, laughed some more! We ended the night at Kelly and Linda's, we felt that they were really our inspiration in all of this and we couldn't wait to share the picutures with them. So our early morning, late night is coming to and end. This is a day that will always be special. I put Myah's pictures in frames in her room and it just feels so complete now. It is hers. Her toys, her bed, her clothes and our daughter. Wow. This was bittersweet though, my good friend Debbie lost her mom Sharon B., yesterday, she was a wonderful woman and I had really hoped that she would have had the chance to see Myah's face. Our friends are like family and my heart is heavy. I know that Sharon will log on in heaven and sneak a peak at our little angel. Please keep her family in your prayers too! Thanks to everyone for the calls and well wishes today! Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pinch me!
April 30, 2006
It is really happening! I just can't believe it! What a full circle moment for us! Tomorrow Dayton turns 11 and I always get a little emotional every year at this time. We have such a wonderful son! He makes us so happy and proud. He has been the light and joy in our lives since the day he was born. I have always called him my little tulip. He was due to arrive on Mother's Day 1995 but decided to come into this world 2 weeks early, on May Day. The day of his birth, we left for the hospital and saw that the only tulip in the yard of our new (to us) house was beginning to finally blossom. We pulled out of the driveway and the tulip looked pink, I thought it must be a sign, my baby is going to be a girl. Well, 8 hours later we learned that he definately wasn't a girl! My parents had come down to stay at our house and when they called the hospital the next morning, they informed me that the tulip wasn't pink after all, it was red. Years later, I looked at the pictures that were taken in the delivery room and realized that there was a picture with hundreds of tulips on the wall. Every year, we still plant red tulips at our house. This past week, the tulips were ready to burst, one had accidently been cut and so I put it in a bud vase. On Thursday morning, it blossomed. I really belive that it was a red thread moment. A connection from Myah to us. A sign that she knew that we were getting our call that morning. As simple as it is, I was comforted when I saw that tulip. I knew that things were going to be alright. God makes everything perfect, and he picked the perfect little girl for us. The fact that her picture was on a police car really struck us immediately. And then we saw those cheeks and that hair! What a beautiful child! We just stare at her pictures and praise God for this miracle. Even though we did not create her, she is ours and we feel a connection to her already. She is our daughter. Dayton no longer will carry around the title of an only child. We by no means ever let him feel that he wasn't "enough" for us. There is never a moment that we ever felt slighted that he is our only child, we are so grateful and blessed to have him, he is our miracle. It is different this time, I really feel like we all wanted Myah in our lives and it was a family decision that we all came to simultaneously. God put Myah in our hearts and gave us the opportunity to act on our desires. Her little face, oh her little face... it has graced our refrigerator, our dashboard, wallets, classrooms, police department, picture frames, friends and family's homes and on this website. Her face makes everyone smile (some people have cried ...... I won't mention any names, you know who you are!) I can't imagine the joy that she is going to bring to our world once she joins our family forever. I know that she is being loved by her foster family. They seem to be taking excellent care of her and are giving her a family atmosphere. I pray that I can take the place of the only mother that she has ever known. I pray that God will allow her heart to embrace me and reassure her that we are her forever family. I want her to feel safe with us.
We have been so touched and overwhelmed by everyone's well wishes. These last few days have been a whirlwind and such a happy time for our family. Our heads literally are spinning. We are so happy!! I can't quit smiling. My friend Debby K. said that I am glowing, I guess that even a paper pregnancy can create that special "glow". It is just such a relief to finally know who our little girl is and to see her face. I am so proud to be her mom already. We are just so thrilled to share her story and her pictures with everyone.. FINALLY! I know that these next 6 or so weeks are going to fly by and we will be traveling before we know it. I actually allowed myself to finally buy some clothes for her, Li Wen Ting. I am like a fish out of water in the little girl clothes dept. There is a lot to it!! Help!!
Well, I have rambled on long enough, I have so much to say, but I really can't even attempt to put into words what we are feeling. We are so happy, blessed and grateful and can't wait to share her with everyone!