Life with Ava

It was one year ago today that we got the phone call that totally and completely rocked our world. I can still remember the anxiety and excitement like it was yesterday - the emotions were running so high (and low) at that point that I still wonder how I managed to function at all in the days prior to the call. You know, the days where we knew referrals were here with our agency but not knowing when we would hear from them. Actually I do know how I managed to get through the Friday afternoon/evening prior - a couple of my coworkers and I ended up splitting a bottle of wine or two at work (it's pretty laid back like that at TBDCoE) so I got a bit tipsy. It doesn't take a lot since I'm not much of a drinker. I ended up working really late that evening to make sure I wouldn't be driving with even the slightest hint of alcohol still in my system.

I was at work on Monday when I got the call from our social worker. I had a full list of questions printed out so I wouldn't forget to ask them, although it probably goes without saying that I totally forgot about my list and didn't ask her anything at all. I started shaking as soon as I saw the agency's name on Caller ID, answered the phone and promptly told her (not asked - I'd forgotten my manners at this point) to hold on, got up and shut my office door, and started crying with happiness (and relief) as soon as I picked the phone back up and heard her say, "You have a daughter."

I managed to write down all of the info she had and called J at work right away. I (sadly) can't even remember specifically what his reaction was since I was so totally blown away by the news myself and very, very emotional. Naturally, he was too so I doubt he remembers much of the conversation beyond the important stuff either. I then called my mom and J's mom right away to share the news.

I'm sure I told my coworkers and called other family and friends but I can't for the life of me remember any of that. I'm equally sure I was totally unproductive for the rest of the day - I just looked back through my emails sent that day and I'm right. All work correspondence for me virtually stopped after 3PM so I may have left early - heck if I know - I truly can't remember anything else from that day at all. I do know that we started counting down the seconds until we could go to the local Bethany office the next afternoon to see Ava's pictures and get/return our referral paperwork.

What a day that was!!

I can hardly believe it. This really is happening.

The CCAA updated their website. I never really thought I'd see the day when our log in date finally made it.

Note to self: Must remember to breathe.

Zip, Nada, Nothing from our agency today.

Referrals are in the US so we can officially say that the stork has landed. The first December referral has been posted by a family on the west coast. Gene and Rick at lumpia and dim sum received the referral for their 16 month old son! They're anxiously awaiting pictures and I, for one, can't wait to see them.

I've also seen a couple of other referrals out there, but it seems as if most agencies will be notifying families early next week. I'm disappointed of course, but the anxiety was helped tremendously by the two bottles of wine shared with my coworkers this afternoon. It was a long, tough week so we were able to rationalize it with the 5 o'clock somewhere theory.

Even though I know there won't be any more news until Monday I'm still obsessively refreshing RQ every few minutes and lurking on some of the other sites. I really should shut this thing down and try to get some sleep.

Yeah, right. Who am I kidding?

Still no definitive word on the cutoff. I do feel fortunate that we know we're in this batch. I imagine the 12/8er's are going batty now with the are-we-in-or-not agony of not knowing.

As expected, we are not in for October. I'm perfectly okay with that (well, mostly) since we can finally say that we are NEXT! Yahoo!

I don't know what the actual cut off date is — I'll update the Now Serving graphic with that as soon as I hear something definite.

J and I had high hopes that the CCAA would refer enough to let us know if we were going to receive our referral in October. Well, they referred just enough to keep us torturously hanging on to the slim hope that we still might get our referral in October, but with enough doubt that it could very well be November before we see Ava's face.

Good thing my mom reads here, otherwise this post might have been filled with every (frustrated) curse word I could think of. I'm starting to feel a bit like there's this major conspiracy theory to keep the December 5 LIDs as in the dark and confused as possible.

I'll update the graphic sidebar later (updated 11:14pm). We're at my Mom's now and there's no Photoshop to be found 'round her computer. I also have pictures of the coolest pink cowboy boots ever that we bought for the kid this weekend. You know, they say these boots were made for walkin', right? Maybe we should just start walking to China and they'd be ready for us when we finally got there.

**Update** And you can now see the pink boots here.