Tales for 2010: Remembering the moment...

...that our lives changed!

Driving down the road on that Wednesday night, and I got the call:  you guys have been chosen; you are getting your baby as early as Friday!  [It ended up that our Gotcha Day was Monday, so we had a little extra time....]   I "abandoned" my dinner plans with friends that night and turned around and drove home.  Daniel asked what was wrong - why was I already home?  I was in shock and smiling so much.  It was happening.  The day was here.  It was happening soon.  It was happening NOW!
We panicked with joy and paced around planning, calling, thinking...  What to do?  What to do first?
That night we picked a name as we went to sleep.  And the next day I quit my wonderful job - to start a new one so very soon!  And we registered for our new FAST arrival!  Our friends and family were so wonderful with their excitement, gifts, love and joy.  I feel like many of them have been on this journey with us for the longest time.  And I'm so glad that we got to share this wonderful, happy time with them!

The registry worked as a "needs" (and of course wants) list for us.  I had been thinking when the time finally came for our adoption, that I would have time to make lists and a plan.  But there was NO time!  It was make a fast decision and go with it.  And thinking back, I'm kind of glad that there wasn't time to be all wishy-washy.  Because sometimes I do have a decision making problem.  I'm working on it.  And having just a weekend to get an entire nursery together, I think I learned how.  Don't allow myself time to think about it!  And that was probably one of the first of SO MANY lessons I've learned about myself, caring for a baby, motherhood and parenting this year.

So the rest of the weekend, we got the nursery all ready to bring our little girl home!  And on Monday, when we went with our family to meet her, the room was ready!  Diapers in the drawer, clothes in the closet.  Everything washed.  I wasn't surprised that I got everything done, but I was amazed.  It's amazing how different that week and the last week were!

God was amazing in all this.  In the long journey, He was faithful to lead us to where we needed to be.  He gave us peace and patience.  Maybe more patience that I would have wanted, but His perfect timing was so evident in the timing and the way that it all happened this summer.  Daniel had a four week sabbatical from work in June, when we took our great trip to the southwest.  And after getting back on Monday night, two days later we received that amazing call from our social worker, WHILE Daniel was still on his sabbatical.  When we got the baby - he had two weeks left on his month-long break.  That was totally God providing in a way that couldn't be planned.  And this provision was so evident throughout the whole adoption process.