Saturday, October 16, 2010

Celebrating The Phone Call

A year ago this month, Sandy and I received The Phone Call. It was the call we had hoped for like we had hoped for the little blue line in the window of many pregnancy test kits. The kits never showed us what we wanted, so we stopped buying them and looked across the Pacific for a better answer. The Phone Call let us know that our answer had been found.

A year ago this month, our adoption agency called us and told us that we had a daughter. We would find her in the city of Nanchang in the Jiangxi Province of China. An emailed photo of her hit our inbox, and we spent the next 10 weeks imagining this tiny orphanish-looking Chinese girl dropping into our arms in this mysterious far-away place. Was that really what was going to happen? Would we just go get her?

Yes, that is really what happened.

We brought Carly home nine months ago. We love her and she loves us. Her kisses, hugs, snuggles, smiles, and giggles let us know that she was ours before we ever met her. Nanchang wasn’t that far away after all.

Today, she sits beside me on our couch in this small-town in America. Yo Gabba Gabba! is on the TV and her cup is full of apple juice. We’re sitting together watching this crazy show a whole year after The Phone Call.

A whole year later – Wow! I think I’ll celebrate this anniversary. I’m going to watch TV with my daughter.