Three Year Referral Anniverary!

Wow, time sure does fly!  Three years ago today I sat at my desk at work knowing with 99% certainty that “today is the day” we would be getting our referral.  I tried hard to concentrate on work, and actually did a fairly good job of it because I needed something to take my mind off constantly wondering when our referral would arrive.  We had our plan set.  When the email arrived, I would call Daddy and we would both leave whatever we were doing so we could be home together to get “the call” we had waited for almost 3 years to receive.

So many things were running through my mind:  Where is our little girl?, How old is she?, Will we receive twins like we requested??!!

Finally shortly after lunch time (at exactly 1:41 pm for the record) I saw my email notify pop up with a message that said, “The Stork Has Landed!”.   I know I was shaking when the email arrived and I quickly called Dan and said, “Get home now, the call is coming!”.  With shaking hands, I opened the email from our agency and this is what it said: 

Dear family,

The Stork Has Landed! If you have received this email we are pleased to announce that we have received your referral!  Congratulations! 

We are quickly getting everything prepared to contact you (sorting referrals, scanning your pictures, etc!) We will contact each family by phone today and also email you your child’s photo! We are working as quickly as we can to bring your referral to you!  We thank ALL of you for your continued patience and support!

Congratulations!

 I think my car was on auto pilot as I quickly headed home.  I remember touching the steering wheel of the car, which once belonged to my beloved Grandpa, and wishing he had lived longer so he could share in this special day…I know he would have reveled in the excitement.

I arrived home and checked,  double checked and re-checked that we had the video camera set up, the digital camera ready, the “call questions” ready, triple checked to make sure our pens had ink, and we were ready to take the call and find out all the details of our precious little girl.

The phone finally rang at about  2:45 and Dan hit what he thought was the “speaker” button but he accidently cut off the call!  I thought we were both going to faint.  We called back right away and didn’t get through.  Finally about 5 minutes later the phone rang again and we heard the voice at the other end of the line say, “This is Kim from your agency and I’m calling with details about your beautiful new daughter”.  I will remember that moment for the rest of my life!  I was absolutely shaking when I was writing all the details.  We found out that our little girl was 8 and a half months old, she was living in Xiushan, China and she was healthy.  Her care givers said she was a “moderate sleeper” (reflecting on this we would have hated to see what a “bad sleeper” was) and the person at our agency said our daughter was absolutely beautiful, with sparkling big brown eyes and LOTS of hair and very fair skin”  She promised that photos would arrive later in the day.  We quickly thanked her and hung up and called the happy and excited new grandparents to share the good news!  Then we waited, waited and waited for the photos to be emailed.  At 4:11 after we hit the refresh button many times during the afternoon we got an email saying, “photos of your new daughter are attached to this email”.  Dan and I held hands and opened the email, we had not officially named our little girl yet but when we opened the email with three beautiful photos of her we knew…we had a Danika Joy Herman waiting to come home! 

Our agency estimated we would be travel  at the end of August or early September (delayed a few weeks due to the Olympics). 

Later that evening we went out to dinner to celebrate this wonderful day and began dreaming of our travels to China!

Three years later we still remember with such happiness this wonderful day that changed our lives forever.  We’ve made lifelong friends with the other families who shared the bond of traveling to China and receiving our children on the same day and continue to maintain friendships with them; we can’t begin to explain how special these people are in our lives.

Here are some of my favorite Danika photos from the past 3 years!

At Disney World in February 2011

At the State Fair, touching her first baby pig

18 month photos

2 year photos

One of the 3 referral photos we received July 7, 2008

One of the 3 referral photos we received July 7, 2008

One of the 3 referral photos we received July 7, 2008

Enjoying a walk outside shortly after arriving home

One of the first photos of Danika

Photo we received in a packet of photos when we arrived in China

Another referral photo we received when we arrived in China

2nd birthday party at Daycare

At the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou China

Arriving HOME

US Consulate Appointment Day

Flying into USA airspace

Scrunch face!

Enjoying her outdoor toys

Preschool photo

Red Couch Photo



Choosing a new toy



Future so bright I gotta wear shades!

Email notice - the stork has landed!

Lunch to celebrate 3 year referral anniversary

Celebrating with Burger King lunch at Mommy's work!

Today Miss Danika and I had a lunch date and I shared with her the very special memory of seeing my “Baby Danika” the first time.  She loves hearing about that day and knowing what a happy and special day it was.  She’s requested that I get “Burgers Kings” and bring it to eat in the lunch room at my work as her special treat for the day.   Danika, we have been so blessed with you in our lives these past three years.  The memories of seeing your face for the first time will live with me forever.  I’m so glad we shared such special memories today!