One year ago today.....

First of all, let me thank all of you for following along for the last year. Hard to believe, but it was one year ago today that we got our referral for Jetta. Just typing that brings tears to my eyes.

It was a typical Monday morning, I got up and headed into work. Once I got there, I did my usual morning ritual, I logged onto my computer and headed straight to the Rumor Queen's website to see if there was any news and to my surprise there was news, news I was not expecting. She had posted that Europe was starting to receive calls for referrals that included our log in date. I could hardly believe it, it was finally gonna happen. One of my friends who live outside of Chicago saw the Rumor Queen's post and she called me to ask me if I was ready to get "the call"......It was so strange to hear that, the fact that we would soon be hearing something from our agency about our daughter.

While I could hardly concentrate, I attempted to work, which was not really working so well. I kept checking Rumor Queen and talking with my friend Abby, who lives in Peoria, to see if she had heard anything yet. As the day slowly passed by, she heard from her caseworker, along with some of my other travel mates. They were all talking and saying that they had information about their daughters. I was still waiting.

Finally, as I was leaving work, around 4:30, my cell phone rang and it was my social worker, I was shaking so much, I could hardly believe I was finally gonna hear the news that I had waited so long for. She told me, you have a daughter, her name is Jia Jia Xu and she is in Guangdong province and is 9 months old. I could hardly believe it. At that point she said she didn't have much other information, but would try to get back to me soon with more details.

So, I got on the bus and headed home, once I got on, I could hardly contain myself and told everyone who would listen, I got a referral for my daughter and we would soon get to see pictures. It was so hard to believe that this was finally going to happen. We were finally gonna see pictures of the baby who we had been calling Jetta and dreaming about for over 3 years. That night when I got home, I told Shannon what I knew, which wasn't much, but then our social worker called and said she had one small picture that she could share, but that we would see more tomorrow. She sent it and it was amazing to finally see her face. Her hair all wild and crazay, the biggest brown eyes ever and the cutest lips. She was perfect. Now, just to wait for the next morning and to finally get more details and pictures of our little girl.

We got the pictures that next morning, I called Shannon and sent them directly over to him. We were both speechless and were so in love. I could barely contain myself and had to go tell everyone I worked with that I had pictures. So, I shared them with all of them. She was perfect and could barely wait to go and get her.

Fast forward, March 4th, we headed to China to get Jetta, it was the longest flight ever. Once we got there, we spent a few days in Hong Kong to get adjusted. Finally on Sunday, March 8th we headed to Guangzhou with all the other parents so we could be there for Monday, March 9th, which was the day we got the girls. What an amazing day. I don't think I'll ever forget that day, it was even more amazing than finding out that we had our referral. They called our names and brought her out to us.....she was so tiny, so precious, with such big, curious eyes. To our surprise we got our first smile from her. She wasn't sure what to think of everything, but seemed to adjust fairly well. She was a hit with all the other parents, as she was so sweet and outgoing. Those first few days were amazing. I could hardly believe we had her and that she was ours.

After spending another week in China it was time to come home. Leaving China was difficult. Only becauase that was her home and we were taking her from it. While I knew we would be giving her a much better life than what she would have had, it was still very emotional to take her away and to not think about her birth mother and what a huge sacrifice she had made by giving her up. I am forever grateful to her, I wish I could tell her that, but I hope she finds some comfort in knowing that her daughter is somewhere with a very loving family, who wants to give her the best of everything. While I can't imagine the void her heart feels, mine is completely full and never knew that being a mom could be so amazing.

Now that we've been home, Jetta has done so many amazing things. She started walking on May 5th, just 6 short weeks after we came home and hasn't slowed down since. She is always on the go. She keeps us busy that's for sure. She now has a vocabularly of about 60 words, can say part of her abc's....a, b, c, d, e, f, g.....it a start. She also can count to 13.....despite missing 6, 7 & 12. However, she is finally starting to say 6. She also did something else very big today....she went poop on the potty. Yep, poop. It was a huge step. As the week continues I'm gonna try to work more with her, but am hopeful that we may be on the road to no more diapers, during the day that is. There are so many more amazing things she has accomplished, she is doing far better than I could have ever imagined. They prepare you for the worst and we definitely didn't encounter that. Jetta is so advanced and amazes me more and more every day. She is a wonderful kid and I couldn't imagine not having her in my life.

We hope to meet up with all our travel mates again in the near future and I am looking forward to that, as I can't wait to see how all the other girls have progressed. We got Christmas cards from many of the families and all the girls look very happy and are growing so quickly. I hope these 8, the Guangdong 8, will always have a special connection to each other, after all they spent almost their first full year of life together. It's hard to believe that we've had them for almost 10 months now and that soon they will have been with us as long as they were in the orphange. It seems that they are all adjusting well and can't wait to see what the next year brings.

I'm gonna post her referral pictures and then a picture from today, just to show how much she has changed. Her face is so sweet, her eyes so big and her heart so full of love. I'm so grateful that her mother gave her this opportunity, that China chose her for us and that she is a part of my life. I can't imagine it any other way.