June

Today I've been thinking a lot about what I was doing last year at this time. On June 19th it will be one year since we got Clarissa's referral. Can you believe it's been a year?

This morning I went back and read my blog from last June and I had a great time reliving all the excitement. It seems like it happened just yesterday. A year ago right now I was still in waiting mode. We knew that we were going to get a referral soon but we didn't know when, so I barely dared to leave the house for fear that I'd miss the big phone call.

When it did come I was out of the house. We were in the car on our way to Oregon. Rereading those posts this morning was so much fun. What a great day that was!

Coincidentally, something else made me think about about that day today. We got new cellphones this morning so I've been setting up my voicemail and picking out a ringtone and all that fun stuff. I really don't use my cellphone all that often, so messages and voice mails that I get tend to stay on there for a while. I was listening to my old voice mail today and I realized that I still have the voice mail I got from the agency when we got our referral!

The agency tried to call my house to tell us that we had a daughter and when she couldn't get ahold of us at home (because we were in the car on the way to Oregon) she tried my cellphone. When she called my cellphone it froze up and I couldn't answer it so she left a message. In the meantime I was calling her right back and we got the big news, but I have this great voicemail on my phone from her. I haven't heard that voicemail since last year and I kind of forgot that I still had it. As I was cleaning out voicemails today and it came on I got a big grin on my face and instantly got a little teary eyed!

What a fantastic memory that brought back up! Anyone who was reading my blog last year at this time knows how agonizingly long those last few weeks were for me. I wanted that referral call so bad that I could hardly stand it. Getting that call was one of the most memorable moments of my life. I'll never forget sitting in the car in the rain on the side of the road in Oregon hearing that we had a daughter.

Almost exactly a year later, here we are, the adoption is finalized and Clarissa is amazing. Things couldn't have worked out more perfectly for our family.

I'll be thinking a lot about that referral call this month as the anniversary gets closer. It's one of those moments in my life that I'll never forget. To me it's like the moment I found out that I was pregnant with Josh and Matthew. Knowing that you're going to be a parent again is scary but so exciting! Those memories make me smile.

I think that I'm going to hold on to that voicemail. I'll listen to it again every now and then and remember what a great day that was. :)