One year ago today.........

We were basking in our unexpected referral of our baby boy! I can remember the "call" so well. Bill, Lily and I had just finished lunch and I was heading off to work. Tatianna, our case manager called just as I was warming up my car. I remember thinking she was calling us about an email we had received 2 times earlier in the week. I said something like "Did you tell her we already got the email?" Bill had a funny expression on his face and said "I think it might be more important, like our referral." My heart jumped just at the thought, but I so didn't want to get my hopes up.

Picking up the phone and feeling nervous I said "Hello?" Tatianna said "Melissa, I have good news. I have a referral for you!" Stunned, excited, and breathless, I said "I'm so surprised!" Tatianna replied "I know. I'm totally surprised too." She then went over the statistics. I became a parrot, repeating everything she said.
"It's a boy." -"It's a boy"
"He's 15 days old"--"He's 15 days old."
You get the idea:) For the next 2 hours, Bill and I were glued to our laptop, staring at 3 pictures, 3 documents and 1 video. Phone calls were made to grandparents and uncles and soon they arrived to join us.

It was such a fun, celebratory time. Grandmothers fussed over their new grandson claiming he was obviously a very bright baby. They claimed they could tell by how alert he was in video :) Copies of pictures were made and passed around and we all headed out to our favorite Chinese restaurant where we proudly showed off our newest family member's photo.

This week, my Taiwan agency has finally received a big batch of referrals and China appears to be on the brink of a bigger batch of referrals. I've seen my online friends experience the absolute amazing, life changing event of getting their referral. I truly believe some of my real-life friends are going to get their referrals from China in a matter of weeks and I can't wait.

My advice to all my friends is enjoy the ride, because there isn't anything that compares to it!
Andrew then:

Andrew now: