We were waiting with 90 other GWCA families for our referral. Once we received the Stork Alert we flew home from Las Vegas to receive our referral together with family and friends. The excitement was overwhelming. We prepared for the moment that we had waited with such anticipation. We taped a message to Katie. Marc brought me a dozen roses. We stocked the house with goodies as family and friends were going to be stopping by to share on our joy. We tracked the package that was delivered to Great Wall and just when we thought we could wait no longer we received the following e-mail from our agency:
I am writing to inform you that we received one package of referrals today, but we did not receive both packages with all 90 referrals. The package we received today contained 26 referrals. If we received your referral, we have already notified those families via email, if you are receiving this email, we do not expect delivery of your referral today. I know that this will be difficult news, but we will be following up with the CCAA as soon as they reopen.
Unfortunately, the CCAA will not reopen until this evening, but I assure you that we will be in touch with them to learn more about the arrival of the second package. I cannot imagine your disappointment, but we will quickly address this situation and will follow up with you as soon as possible.
DHL lost our referral!!???!! I could hardly see though my tears and thankfully my friend Shannon sent out e-mails to everyone about what had happened as I could not bring myself to do that. After waiting 10 months (which at the time felt like an eternity) I thought that there was no way that we could wait another day to see our sweet Katie Starr's face; but wait we did.
GWCA was able to get 3 pieces of identifying info three days later on our daughter: Name, DOB and Province (Gansu Province; where the heck is that? :) but our referral was never found by DHL and it took 3 weeks to have a duplicate one issued by the CCAA. When all was said and done; even though we thought that we could not wait another day let alone 3 more weeks we did and even though we never thought that we would have to wait almost 3 months to travel; we did. This daughter that we both waited our whole lives for was more than worth every crazy moment that we endured. She is everything that we has dreamt of and more. The proof of that is now we are in the wait for her brother.
I write this for two reasons tonight. The first is that I wanted to mark the year anniversary of that day as we will mark 3/17 when we finally saw her beautiful face and as we will mark 5/14 when we wrapped our arms and love around her forever. The second reason that I write this is for those of you that wait and wait and wait some more. This is a glimpse into your sweet future. All of the pain of this insane wait will fall away when your child finally is revealed to you and your lives will forever be changed in the best way possible. You have much to look forward to, as we do now, as we wait for our Ethan.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
One Year Ago Today......
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11 comments:
I remember the "lost" DHL package, but why didn't I remember that it happened to YOU!!! Also, it seems like forever ago!!! She was definitely worth the wait, though!
Wow - what a story - but I so agree - it is worth every bit of the wait and the tears, anxiety, etc. Thanks for this great reminder!!
What a crazy few months that was for you! When I look back to that time for all of the Mei Dreamers it was as if we were caught in a surreal dream that would not end. So much frustration & sadness. I hope that all of the families waiting now are lucky enough to have the support that we did during our wait.
Great story! In fact the lost package happened again a few times after that. I remember reading the rumblings that were going on about lost DHL packages each month from our June group. My thoughts were similar to yours when I was told that Kylie was from Gansu (where the heck is that)? I was almost, dare I say, dissappointed because I have never heard or known anyone who had adopted from there. Thank goodness for our Wuwei group. I tried to find out as much as I could about that region. When we finally met Kylie the rest was history. We never dared to dream of having the perfect little girl for our family that we now have. I would love to share your blog with some of the waiting families I keep in touch with.
By the way, I would love to meet you and Katie Starr in June. I'm really looking forward to it.
Judy
Thanks! I needed that today. The ever constant rumors of a speed up that never seems to happen are driving us crazy. Emotions up and down!
Karen
Oh gosh I remember that. I was checking your blog every 5 minutes in hopes that you had posted some wonderful news. But then you posted Katie Starrs photo and I swear it is the most beautiful referral photo I have ever seen.
And now look at her......amazing.
Wow, a year has passed already. The pain of that day won't ever fully disappear I don't think. We made it through though--yay for us! Wouldn't it have been nice if we could have had a glimpse into today, 9 months home with our sweet girls to tide us over? They were worth the wait(s...all of them!), and we'd do it all over again. It would have been wonderful to have things go down the way we'd imagined them, but there must have been a reason for all the frustrating twists and turns (still haven't figured it out yet). Mother's Day sure holds an extra special meaning for us now though! Things weren't handled well with our lost referrals, and we still don't know what happened, but we'd go though it again and even much more to have the daughters we love in our arms. Sigh, it's been a long road. Thanks for sharing the journey with us. Where in the heck are those lost packages anyway? I still stick my tongue out at every DHL truck I see--is that bad? :)
hugs to all!
I remember that day so clearly. It's seems so long ago now. It's so hard to make people who are waiting understand that once you hold your child in your arms for the first time, the pain of the wait disappears.
Good words. Hopefully it will some comfort to those waiting.
Crazy story! It is amazing the things we can endure in this process...but you are so right, it is ALL worth it!
No way! Has it really been a year? Crazy. I vividly remember hearing that you were one of the "lost package" folks that day and gasping with horror. I can't believe it's been a year. Wow.
Thank you for sharing that. Come over and hug me when I hit 10 months and still have 20 more to go.
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