September 2nd is a special day in our family. Four years ago today we got the phone call from our adoption agency that forever changed our lives. "You have a little girl waiting in China and she is beautiful!!" Man were they ever right she is a beautiful little girl and we love her so much!! We couldn't imagine life without our Lily.
I remember the day we got the call four years ago. I was a sophomore in high school and September 1st we had heard that families in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe had received their referral and that our log in date of February 6, 2006 was in. It would be the following day before we heard anything and got our official referral with the time difference and what not but still that was the longest day of the 3 year wait. When we started the process for Lily in fall of 2005 and were logged in the following February we were told we would have Lily home by Christmas of 2006 but as many know China has experienced a MAJOR slow down in traditional adoptions and we got stuck and caught in the first of it. We waited 37 long months to see her face but as many have said after they saw their little ones face it was so worth all the long wait and months of paper work and they are right the long wait seems to just disappear when you look at their face and realize they are coming home finally. That and had we not have gotten caught in the wait our little one wouldn't have been our Lily as she wasn't born until December of 2007,
On September 2nd our official referral day I was in yearbook class when my mom sent me a text saying that the call had come through from our agency. Over the phone we learned that Lily was waiting in Jiangxi China in a small rural city at an orphanage that we have since learned is one of the better ones in China. She was 8 months old at referral time and her pictures were taken in April of 2008 when she was four months old. Pictures came not to long after my mom got off the phone with our agency case worker and it was love at first sight for our family. I didn't get to see Lily's picture until I got home from school later that day mother didn't know how to take a pic and send it via text yet. But it was so worth the wait to see her 4 pictures my words were "Awe she is so cute and looks so sweet!"
After Lily's referral we had to wait 8 long weeks before we were allowed to travel. We were got caught with travel at the same time the Trade fair was going on in Guangzhou and since that is a city we have to go through we had to wait 2 weeks longer before we could travel.
Lily with her referral pictures. I think these are the same ones we printed out 4 years ago!
Also 3 years ago on this day our paperwork was logged into the Chinese system for Jacob's adoption!
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