I've been thinking back to the day we first saw Caitlin's face, 3 weeks ago today, and how it forever changed our lives! I'd like to journal it here so that I can remember it forever. To be honest, I'd been dreaming of the day that we would get "The Call" for years; I'd been thinking about what it would feel like to see our daughter's face for the first time, and I'd had a list of questions I should ask typed up and saved so I'd be ready. I thought the day would be full of celebrating. It actually was quite different than I'd planned, although I wouldn't trade any of it for a million bucks! It was one of the best days of my life!
The day began with being awoken from a sound sleep with the phone ringing at 6:45 AM, and I saw on the caller ID that it was our agency calling. A voice at the other end said "I know it's really early in California, but I have some news for you: We matched you with a baby girl last night!"
For those of you who don't know me, let me explain that I'm kind of well-known as being a really bad morning person. I'm pretty useless until I've had my Dr. Pepper fix... I think my reply was something like "Huh? What? Really?"
She went on to tell me a little about Jiang Xi'ner, including that her birthday was February 14, 2009. She then said several other sentences (none of which do I remember) before I stopped her and asked "Wait- did you say February 14th? Valentine's Day?" Yea, it took me that long to comprehend!
She then started giving me instructions on what I needed to do within the next 24 hours if Paul and I wanted to accept the match. Again, so not the morning person! I didn't write anything down, couldn't shake the fog from my brain to even think straight. All these thoughts and emotions were flooding in, and I couldn't even think of any questions to ask her. I had my list of questions to ask in front of me, but they did me no good. She told me not to worry, that she would be sending me an e-mail with the instructions written out, along with Caitlin's referral information. While I was waiting for her e-mail, I quickly typed out the following message to Paul (who was already at school): "CALL ME CALL ME CALL ME!!!!!!! CALL ME NOW!!!!!!!!"
Paul and I had discussed not looking at the referral picture right away, but rather to read through all of the information with a clear and non-biased mind. We knew that once we saw the picture we'd fall in love and would have a hard time being impartial in making a decision. Smart plan, so I made sure (even with my dopey mind) that I didn't open any "jpeg" files when the referral e-mail came in. So what was the first file I opened? A "pdf" file. Oops. It was Caitlin's referral picture!
Even though I kept telling myself to close it quickly before I got too attached, I just kept staring at her sweet face. I saw her beautiful eyes, her cute, chubby cheeks, and her full head of thick, dark hair. It was love at first sight!
Then I looked through the other files. There was a remarkable amount of information; I was not expecting so much! We had 2 different sets of blood tests (one from November, one from February). These meant nothing to me, of course, but I was thankful to have them. There was a medical report that gave quite a bit of information, and there was a report that told all about Caitlin's history, her routine and schedule, and gave a glimpse into her daily life. The last report was about Caitlin's personality. This was my favorite, and made me cry! It was written by her orphanage, and it made it so clear that Caitlin's nannies really love her. She is a spicy girl indeed! They reported that she is active, plays with toys, and even takes toys from the other babies! Too cute- definitely not a wallflower!
About this time Paul finally called me. I excitedly told him everything, and he refused to look at her picture until we had discussed everything. We knew that this little girl was our Caitlin, but we didn't want to make it official until we'd talked to a doctor and given ourselves at least a little time to process everything (although we were only allowed 24 hours!). Once we hung up I forwarded Caitlin's picture to Paul. He e-mailed right back "She's the one."
By now it was almost 8 AM, so I called my friend Avril, who is expecting her first child in June and had already chosen a pediatrician. She had told me about her new doctor, and really seems to like him. I asked for his information, then called his office, fully expecting to just leave a message for them to call me back later. They answered the phone! I told them our story, and they actually made me an appointment for 1:30 that afternoon! I could not believe they would do that to help me, someone they'd never met!
So the clock was ticking! I then called and left a message with an International Adoption Specialist doctor whom I'd talked to a few weeks back, telling her that we'd gotten a referral and asking her to call me back. I then called my mom to share our news with her, then ran to get dressed.
I drove up to our homestudy agency (about a 40 minute drive up the coast) to drop off some papers that I'd promised to bring by that day, then ran back down to the Tricare office to talk to them. I'll never forget sitting in the Tricare office, listening to the nurse make phone calls to try to get the answers I needed. She said "I have a mother here who... about her daughter..." When she hung up, she looked at me and noticed that I had a huge smile on my face. When she asked why I was smiling, I replied "I love that you just called me a mother!"
Somehow I safely made it to the pediatrician's office on time for my appointment (even though I honestly don't remember how I got there, or how I got anywhere that day, for that matter). He was very kind, and took a long time looking over Caitlin's file. He gave me a lot of insight, and told me that the information looked great! He was very impressed with everything, and even went ahead and wrote the "physician's letter" that I needed to turn in, even though I had 2 weeks to get it done. This letter simply stated that he would be Caitlin's doctor, and talked about how he planned to care for her special need. He wrote it right there on the spot for me, then didn't charge me anything for the visit!
Since our home scanner is not working, and our agency needed color copies of our passports, Paul had to go home to get our passports while I was at the doctor's office, then take them back to school to scan them there. He was really sweet; even though he had this huge project going on at school he made sure he called me from time to time to see how I was doing, and if he needed to do anything. He was so excited, but exhausted after being at school at 5 AM every day that week!
The International Adoption Specialist doctor had called me back as I was walking into the pediatrician's office, and gave me her e-mail address so I could forward Caitlin's information to her. I went home and forwarded her everything, then got to work on collecting the things I needed to turn in within the first 24 hours (a recent family photo, passports photos, our Prospective Adoptive Parent Form, and our Letter of Intent, or LOI). The LOI is a letter in which I stated that we would like to adopt Caitlin, that we had the insurance and the financial means to care for her special need, and that we would never abuse or abandon her. I e-mailed these things to our agency, then they were translated and sent to China the next day. Paul and I were both sound asleep by 9:30 PM, both of us completely exhausted, but oh so happy!
Whew! What an amazing day! I honestly don't remember huge chunks of the day; it was just a complete blur of running around and collecting information- and total and complete exhilaration! I compared it to an episode of the TV show "24"; you know how it is nonstop action, and just when things seem to be quieting down a bit, suddenly there is another explosion, and things start all over again? Or maybe "Mission Impossible," where he gets a phone call that starts nonstop running and problem solving...
Anyway, it was truly an awesome day. Exhausting, but wonderful- because it was the day we saw our daughter's picture for the first time! While I've already forgotten parts, I will never forget that day, and how amazing it felt to know that, finally, we knew who Caitlin was!
We decided to go through Ann at Red Thread. I figured it would cost us about the same to try to mail a package ourselves from the U.S., and with Ann I can be more sure that it will actually make it to the orphanage. If I send it myself it will probably only make it to the local post office, then someone from the orphanage has to go pick it up (possibly by bike). If the package is too big or too heavy, they may not be able to pick it up. And if the orphanage is too busy they may not even be able to send anyone to the post office. Ann knows how to get it sent directly to the orphanage's door. Plus she was able to get us those precious pictures and updated information last week! I cannot recommend Ann highly enough. She is wonderful!
