Monday, July 21, 2008

Referral Day-One Year Later

"Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." Robert Frost

July 3, 2007 was our referral day. A day that I thought would NEVER happen, but came to life through an unexpected phone call from our adoption agency. In May 2007, I received an email from our agency requesting that each family update their medical checklist and return it back to them by June 30th. All during the month of June 2007, I tried to convince my family to raise our requested age from 0-2 years to 0-5 years for our new medical checklist. My family did not want an older child, but my "mom" instinct keep telling me that the age needed to be changed. I finally convinced my husband to up the age range on our checklist. I called my social worker and told her to go forward with the checklist asking for an older child. On June 28th, our new medical checklist was received by our agency. I expected to wait at least another 4-6 months. When the phone rang on July 3rd (5 days after our checklist was received), I thought our agency was calling to talk about the new age range that I had chosen. When I picked up the phone, I was greeted by Deniece from CCAI telling me that they had matched us up with a little 3 1/2 year old girl with a corrected VSD. I lost my composure because "the call" was not suppose to happen this way. The morning of July 3rd was so un-ordinary...my children were not even in the state-they were vacationing with grandparents. Bart was at work and I was home cleaning. I was so unprepared that all I could say was "ok-send me the email." Deniece sent me the email with the following text "I hope you were able to get your composure back. We are thrilled to introduce this sweet child to your family. We look forward to hearing your thoughts regarding this possible adoption." I called Bart and sent the same wave of shocks through his system as I had just felt. I took one look at the information in the email and knew that she was our daughter. The story of Ella is long; 2 years to convince my husband and another 2 years before she was placed in our arms, but referral day is one that I will always cherish. All along the way miracles happened, doors opened while others shut. People came into our lives that would shape our adoption road. Everything happened for a reason-all in His timing so that we could be led to our Ella. Ella is treasured and loved so much. Our family was not complete until she joined us. I am so eternally grateful for the quite whisperings of the Spirit and even more grateful to have the gospel in my life to give me the guidance I need to do what He wants me to do. Our road was the one less traveled-older, special needs adoption, but for our family, it has made all the difference. We love you Ella and look forward to watching you grow up, spread your wings and soar to the heights you dream of.




“The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all” ~Mulan

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Home*Sweet*Home

Got home Monday-took me until today to get a month's worth of travel put away. Loving my bed, but not liking the heat. Already missing the summer night's in Utah. Highlights of what I did/learned:
-Why I never learn my lesson about buying the 64oz soda while driving long distances in the car through the desert when bathrooms are scarce? I ask myself why, why, why?
-The boys loved their sports camps. Bridger's flag football team won the championship.
-The boys got to feed some bears-they hid food and then the bears came into their den and found it-Ella was too young.
-Yellowstone is beautiful, although it takes you an hour to travel 20 miles because of wildlife off the side of the road and very slow drivers.
-Very annoying drivers visit Yellowstone-make sure you plan accordingly (I know this sounds mean, but one night because of a very slow driver-we almost missed getting ice cream because the store was closing-the kids gotta have their ice cream-we are on vacation.)
-Hubby taught the boys to fly fish-Bridger catch his very first fish off of a dry fly in the Firehole River.
-Ella does not like wildlife-should have know this one because she did not like the zoo in China.
-When vacationing with friends, put the boys in one car and the girls in another. Boys play cards-girls watch princess movies...works out great for the parents.
-Had the opportunity to attend a wedding in Salt Lake City-a friend and neighbor re-married after his sweet wife passed away from cancer a short time ago. Glad to see him happy again.
-Played in Park City, Utah and rode a roller coaster through the mountains-definitely a favorite.
-Ella loved playing with her cousins. I wished we lived closer to family because I saw the huge impact they had on her-she bonded instantly.
-Got "kidding" kicked out of my brother's house-while I and my SIL's sister, Grace were babysitting. My niece decided to cut off her hair-Ella was in on the planning, but the girls were caught before Ella could get to her hair. I had a total "freak-out" while Grace, who used to be or still is Sister Grace (she is on sabbatical from her convent in the Philippines) remained calm. Grace kept telling me it was going to be OK-nobody was going to get mad. I seriously looked at her and could hear the screaming little voice in my head saying "you are such a nun...we are SO dead." After Fantastic Sam's got done "fixing" my niece's hair, she had a shorter version of the Dorothy Hamil haircut. So Sorry Bro!
-Watched Angel Moroni be put in place on the Daybreak Temple-very cool!
-Visited friends.
-Met for an hour with a mother ready to leave for Taiwan to pick up her daughter-love talking international adoption.
-Picked "wild flowers" in Wyoming to put on Grandma's grave. Still can't believe she is gone-it has almost been six months.
-So much more. We had a blast-made the summer fly by and for some reason this trip brought back a lot of memories. Guess there is something to be said about "going home."

I am working on my story of Ella's referral day...hopefully, I will get that posted soon. I realized that half of my pictures are downloaded onto my friends computer...most of my Ella pictures...I will have to post some others later. I am now off to catch up on blog reading =).



Feeding the Bears


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The bear finding Hunter's hidden food

Our friends who came along

Fly Fishing


I know it is small, but who can argue with that smile

LOVE these photos

There is a bear in there somewhere

Bridger found "his" National Forest Waiting for Old Faithful to erupt

Sports Camps-Living it up in the Dorms

Angel Moroni

Sunday, July 6, 2008

YeLLowStonE





Having so much fun...having computer issues...missing everyone in blog-land...unable to check out to many blogs...hope everyone is doing well...can't wait to catch up next week. Ella is having fun getting to know her cousins, but is missing home a lot; she is ready to go home now. July 3rd was the one year anniversary to our referral...the day that changed our lives for the better. How we do love our Ella...or as her daddy does say "the best decision we ever made." I hope to post more about that day because a miracle truly happened.