Our lives were changed forever...

On this day one year ago we saw our precious baby's face for the first time.

It was a Wednesday afternoon and Scott had just left for work after being home for lunch. I was putting Paige down for a nap so when I heard the phone ring, I decided to let the machine pick up. I stood at the top of the stairs and tried to hear who was leaving a message. I sort of made out that it was someone from CCAI (our agency) but I didn't hear the reason for her call. I assumed that she was calling to ask a question about our paperwork or immigration stuff, that happened from time to time and I had learned to not get excited. After getting Paige down I listened to the message and my heart did a backflip. You see it was Pam in the Waiting Child Department and she had a file with our name on it. The file was for an adorable 16 month old little boy with clubfeet. She instructed me to call her as soon as possible so that she could give me all the details. After I picked myself up off the floor I called Scott and told him he may have to come back home. I called Pam and she gave me all the details on our sweet boy. I was in such a state of shock that I hardly remember the call. She emailed me the file so that we could make a decision on whether or not we thought Mason would be a good fit for our family. I must have clicked the send/receive button a hundred times before I decided to walk out to the mailbox to calm myself down. Once I got back inside the email was there. I immediately sent it to Scott and we opened it up together over the phone. Here was the sweet face looking back at us.

Of course, we fell in love immediately. Scott got right to work calling our family doc and specialists. It took two days to get all the info back from the docs and on the afternoon of Friday November 7th, Scott called Pam in the WCP and accepted the referral of He Dong Sheng. We were the parents of 4 children! It was so exciting and overwhelming!

We told the kids that night after Scott got home from work. When we told them that the new baby was going to be a boy we got all sorts of reactions. Sam was thrilled and jumped up and down. Alice gave a thumbs up and then wavered until her thumb pointed to the side. I guess this meant she wasn't so sure yet. Paige was very confused on how we would give a boy the name Stella. Once it sunk in, they were all on board for a new baby brother.

This journey has been amazing. I didn't realize at the time that waiting and looking at Mason's sweet face for three months would be the easiest part of this adoption. Raising this little boy is so fun, so hard and so worth it in every way. We are blessed by him everyday and cannot imagine a life without him. Adoption has blessed me in so many ways that I never realized until this little guy came into my life. He may not have been born from my body but certainly was born in my heart and has completely captured it!

Happy Referral Day Dong Sheng!

Love, Momma