Saturday, November 03, 2007

One year ago today...

...I was getting ready to teach Social Studies when my cell phone rang. My 4th graders looked up at me bright eyed asking,"Is this it?" I saw a Colorado number and nodded my head. Dylan's 2 best friends ran out the door to get Dylan and Devin out of class. Another student went to get another teacher to cover my class as I answered the phone. Kat from CCAI introduced herself and I told her to wait a second until I got outside. All I said was, "Please tell me it's a girl." She said "It's a girl!" I got outside to a picnic table and she started telling me about our daughter. By this time, the boys had found me at the picnic table. Kat told me our daughter's name was Xu Na Na (they called her Na Na) and that she was living in Xuwen, Guangdong Province. Her birthday was 12-14-05 making her 10.5 months old. Kat said she looked tiny in her pictures and really cute. I wrote a few more tidbits down then Kat said she'd email us the photo. I hung up and ran up to the office to tell them I was leaving. As the boys and I were heading to the parking lot, I heard the secretary over the loud speaker..."The phone call came...it's a girl!"


As we got to the car I called Keith and told him to meet us at home. I started rattling off the information but I don't really remember anything else about the ride home. When we got home, I called my parents. My mom was crying so hard I had to tell her to settle down so I could give her the information. When I told her the baby's name (Na Na) she said "Of course!" (The kids call my mom Nana). I hung up as Keith was coming in the door. All 4 of us went upstairs to the computer and found the email from Kat. I took a deep breath and clicked on the email. There she was. The boys were saying how cute and pretty she was and we couldn't take our eyes off of her. We were pleasantly surprised at how healthy she looked (shaved head and all). It may sound odd, but she looked familiar... she looked exactly like I thought she would look. She even looked like a "Maia". We lost 100 lbs of weight from our shoulders in one moment. All the waiting, hoping, wondering...


Now, one full year later (almost to the exact minute) Maia Isabelle Xuna is napping in her crib. She fits into this family perfectly. I'm not sure who I was saying it to, but when I put Maia in for her nap today, I looked at her and said ,"Thank you."

The first picture of our "little bee"






The next 2 pictures we received in the mail a couple days later...




I didn't give you the gift of life,
But in my heart I know.
The love I feel is deep and real,
As if it had been so.
For us to have each other is like a dream come true!
No, I didn't give you the gift of life,
Life gave me the gift of you.
Author Unknown

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a lovely memory! Happy referral day!

Anonymous said...

congratulations

Happy Anniversary

Hugs

Staci Jospey

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the sweet message and information. Any more info would be appreciated. Maia is so beautiful, and she has two handsome brothers, too! I read your blog through your trip to China--sorry about your luggage! But what a sweet story! You can email me at whaley_family@yahoo.com if you prefer. Thanks for sharing those beautiful memories!
Cindy Whaley