Oh happiest of happy days -- referral day was incredible. We had missed the cutoff by one day the month before (we had an LID of July 14, 2005 and they did referrals up through July 13, 2005), so we knew it was coming for sure. The excitement built all month and then finally, on August 24, 2006, referrals started rolling in and we knew our phone was going to ring soon!We had left our application for a child completely up to China, saying that we would be thrilled with one girl, one boy, or boy or girl twins. Even though we had said we would LOVE twins, we knew they were so rare and spent the rest of the year thinking we would be matched with one wonderful little child (TubaDad thought girl, and I thought boy, by the way). We got one carseat, one crib, one highchair, and had everything ready for our kiddo.
And then came the call that would knock our socks off and change our lives forever... To see what we were thinking that day, here are the four referral day posts as well as the videos of The Call and our calls to our parents. The support was incredible, we had about 750 comments that day and they each made us smile (even more than we were already smiling):
6:58 AM: Might as well get in the shower
Well I'm not sure any sleep took place in this house last night, and for once I wasn't the only one staring at the ceiling... So it's 6:58am and time to hop in the shower and start The Day We See Funshine's Face. Wow, I got chills typing that.
More later (of course). I'll try to dash off one quick post when the phone call comes (I know I can prewrite the post and queue it up, it's remembering to click "send" after hearing the ringing that I'm a little dubious about...)
8:42 AM: Waiting, waiting, waiting
We must have checked the ringer on the phone 15 times now. It IS working. And it is NOT ringing. The countdown says zero, so come on guys, call us!!!!!!!!
Mr Cool Cucumber is calmly watching tv. I am simultaneously reading your funny comments on the blog, checking email, rechecking the phone ringer, numbering my referral call questions, popping Imodium, pacing, taking pictures, positioning the video camera, and a million other nervous things. We have our "the phone is ringing" blog post queued up and ready to go. It's TubaDad's job to hit "publish" on it while I vault over the table, answer the phone, turn on the video camera, chug some water, reapply my lipstick, then slide beautifully into my seat to take notes.
Sigh. RING already!!!
9:20 AM: The phone is ringing - THIS IS IT !!!
We'll be back in a little while with the news! It will probably take about an hour for the call and to talk to our families. We'll post right after that. In the meantime here's a song Jennifer just left in the comments section -- it's great!
I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) FUN-Shiny day
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) FUN-Shiny day
Oh yes I can make it now, the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is the rainbow I've been prayin' for
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) FUN-Shiny day
Look all around, there's nothin' but blue skies
Look straight ahead, nothin' but blue skiesI can see clearly now,
the rain is gone,I can see all obstacles in my way
Here is the rainbow I've been prayin' for
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) FUN-SHINY day
(Bob Marley - I Can See Clearly Now, with a few edits ;) )
10:44 AM: It's a girl, and another girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh my gosh I can barely type right now I'm shaking so hard. We just got the call and we have twins!
The older daughter is named Da (big, elder) Shuang (pair) Ye. Her nickname will be Ro for this blog. The younger daughter is named Xiao (little, younger) Shuang (pair) Ye. Her nickname will be Ree for this blog.Oh man, I had to type those sentences 5 times I can't even get my fingers to work.
Da weighs 18.04 pounds, Xiao weighs 17.6 pounds. They are in Hubei in foster care. They were born on October 6, 2005 so they are 10 months old.
Unbelievable! Da-Shuang and Xiao-Shuang, welcome to our family, you are so loved.
The CNN-Like Taping of Our Referral Call:
Calls to Our Parents after Our Referral:
Posts
Happy referral day anniversary! It has been an absolute joy to follow your blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the joy and beauty and many, many more years of good times, love, laughter and fashion to your household.
You may try to get some rest as the teen-age years will be upon you before you know it, and they require extra energy to cope with! Really, they do. I'm sure you'll handle it with finesse.
Take extra good care. That was a fun trip down memory lane.
Jen
Happy Anniversary, I like reading your blog as our son and wife also adopted twin girls from China that were 11 month old at the time and are now three. They are adorable and doing just great.
ReplyDelete