Sofia’s 3 Year Referral Anniversary

I can hardly believe that it was 3 years ago today that John and I received the most wonderful news of our lives, we had a daughter waiting in China. We were filled with so much joy and excitement and a lot of relief that we would soon be holding our daughter in our arms. It took approx. 16 mos. from the day we walked into our agency until we laid our eyes on our sweet girl’s referral picture. I am so thankful for John’s persistence that we should look into the Special Needs/Waiting Child Program with our agency. He just knew our daughter would be on our agency’s next list that came out approx every 4 mos. and we were so fortunate that we were the very first to call about her on the morning of June 11, 2007. I called about 0.02 seconds after the information was emailed out to families wanting to adopt from the Special Needs/Waiting Child Program. In the original email Sofia’s (Jin Yuhua) medical need (unilateral {1-sided} cleft lip/cleft palate) was listed along with her birth date. We did not have a picture yet, just very basic information.

I called our agency and requested the rest of Sofia’s medical information but our coordinator Lashonna was out to lunch and another coordinator by the name of Pat said that she would have Lashonna email me Jin Yuhua’s information as soon as she returned since I was the first to request her information. John was already on his way to my work to take me out to lunch and I called him and told him the exciting news that I requested more information on a  8 month-old baby available for adoption. John was so excited and after he arrived, we waited in my office for what seemed like an eternity for Lashonna to send us the information, of course the minutes felt like hours. We finally decided to go ahead and go to lunch and John would come back up to my office after we returned from lunch so we could see if the email arrived. together We just happened to be going out for Chinese food that day and I remember thinking “how fitting”. I had a tough time eating lunch since I was so excited. I was really trying not to be excited since things had gotten really questionable with China and the wait for adoptions back in 2007. I did not want to get my hopes up and find out that Jin Yuhua’s special need was more than we could handle but of course since I am a very excitable type-person, I could not keep my excitement contained.

After lunch John and I returned back to my office and checked my email and we were bummed that we still had not received Jin Yuhua’s info. John left and told me to call him when the email came over. Later that day around 2:00pm I checked my email and saw the email with a file attached to it from Lashonna. I was so far beyond excited! I was hoping that this was going to be the moment we had been waiting for. I closed my office door and I called John and told him to jump on his computer right away so we could open the file and pictures together. We first read the information about Sofia’s special need and then we opened the pictures. Instantly I knew, she was our daughter. John asked “is she the one”? And I said yes, yes, yes! By this time I was in tears and my boss Les called me from the office next door and said “are you okay”? I said I am better than okay, and then I got off the phone with John and threw my door open so Les could see the pictures of our perfect, beautiful, baby Jin Yuhua, soon to be named Sofia. He thought she was beautiful too.

Now I look back and it is so hard to believe that it was 3 years ago today that we received her referral. In one way it feels like she has always been our daughter and I don’t remember what John and I did before we became parents and in another way it seems like it was just yesterday that we laid eyes on her beautiful photo. Our little girl has grown up so much in the past few years. I remember rocking her in her glider in her nursery after we came home from China and thinking to myself “I am going to hold her tight and enjoy every little bit of her because she will not be a baby forever”. Now my baby is growing up and learning so much. I recently  noticed that Sofia now calls us Mom and Dad and we used to be Mommy and Daddy. It’s bittersweet. I want her to be everything that I know she is meant to be but maybe that can wait a few more years. John and I still want to be Mommy and Daddy. We love you so much Sofia, we love you all the way to the moon and back. We are beyond fortunate, lucky and blessed to be your parents and thank you for being such a wonderful daughter.