Mama's Princess

Oh, she's so sweet I get choked up just typing it.  My word...the gambit of emotions I have traveled this week.  I'm exhausted!

Do ya like my little "ode to flowers"?  If I could clip a hair-bow in there, I'd do that too!  I'm so excited about all that hair...wowza, come to mama!  I've got a hair-bow with your name on it little one...actually, several hair-bows.  I just had to have a little fun with my picture program.  Put a little flower here and there...tuck a bouquet in that little fist...muah.  I could eat her up!  Her eyes sparkle!  Mama's little princess! 

So let me re-cap for you what you weren't seeing/ hearing on referral day - even though I really did try to post as much as I could.  I have to say, it got really crazy at the end and it went wild after the referral came.  A frenzy of panic and action, nervous energy spilling everywhere - and I will give you the skinny:

So I left off with a note that we had a "snafoo" of sorts.  Yes, we did indeed.  You see, I had been waiting all day for that call.  All day to know for SURE that referrals had arrived at our agency.  Once the e-mail came that they were indeed referrals, I went into orbit emotionally.  Started crying, started getting myself all worked up...oh it was good times ya'll.

Quint went down for a nap and it was a waiting game.  Waiting for that darned phone to ring and to hear those words "you have a daughter!".  Only, one hour passed and then another.  I've never been so rattled in my life.  Finally 3pm came.  The phone rang.  I hit record on the video camera.  All was set.  And then...

No ability to conference AB in to the call.  From my phone or their phone system.  What?!  No!  We have to do this together!  I was freaking out.  She said she'd call me right back, but 5 minutes became a half hour.  What the friggity frackity?!?!  No, no, no, no no no no

I knew you were all hanging on.  I was too!  Finally, I called the agency.  Advised them they couldn't leave me hanging like that, and that I would be vomiting all over my Referral Call Sheet if I couldn't get the news asap.  Anton and I were on the phone, he conferenced in the agency from his location and there it was...those words I waited 3 years, 8 months and 3 days for...

"It's a girl!"

Seriously, what came next surprised us, delighted us, amazed us...

She's so little, right?  Just five and a half months old.  Her birthday?  Seven months to the day after Quint's.  (plus a year)  They will be nineteen months apart...so sweet.  Big brother...

She weighs 11 pounds...twenty-one inches long.  She's tiny...so sweet, so little...I could eat her up and her little apple cheeks.

She's in Hunan and for privacy I'll keep her Chinese name and SWI off the blog, but I'm just amazed...

We were given the details about how she can hold her head up, is a heavy sleeper - all of that.  But I'm just not sure with that kind of stuff.  I've heard things about those details being "fluff" that they give to everyone.  So I'm not putting that much into those things.  I'll just figure that out for myself when I get to snuggle her in person and watch her every move for two weeks straight...oh bliss!

However, she's a JOY, is she not?  Just look at her?  I could scoop her out of that photo and love her to pieces (hold me to that last part!).

Anton got coverage for his classes after the referral call ended, and rushed home.  We still had not seen her face.  And we waited...and waited...

Finally, there it was...the e-mail that held her pictures in our inbox. almost an hour after Anton got home.  Kill me!  Thought it would never come!  The video cam went on and once again we were nervous and anxious and just...freaking out, really.  Quint sat on Anton's shoulders, I crouched beside them and up those images came.  We SCREAMED and SHOUTED!

"Keira Joy!!!  Finally!!!  There you are!!!  So beautiful, so wonderful...so cute and tiny...so sweet and adorable..." and Quint sitting there completely unsure what was going on, so cute though.

It was a PRECIOUS moment, my friends...long awaited and full of happiness and peace.  There she was, our little sweetie...all safe and sound, looking healthy and happy and those cheeks that you can't wait to smother in kisses.

So of course, the phone calls began - the e-mails began - the posting began...and I didn't have time to write much on the blog.  It was all I could do to put the pictures up, to be truthful.  The phones were ringing, the e-mails were coming faster than I could keep track (all 200+ of them in three hours), the chaos was wonderful and overwhelming.  I could not tell you how many people we spoke to, how many tears I shed, how many screams and hoots and hollers were let out...it went on and on and it was beautiful.

So, now we wait again.  6-8 weeks for travel - and that's ok.  We still have some work to do over HERE.  God has a plan, He always does!  He didn't bring us this far for nothing...

In the meantime, I'll be here still posting as per usual...albeit raving and drooling over little princess up there in the corner...oh yes, drooling.  I can't wait to see her get to wear ALL THOSE CLOTHES she's been gifted over the last several years.  A closet and dresser and tubs full...and here I thought she might be too big for them.  They start at 9 months because I was SURE she would be much older.  Better work on getting some smaller stuff, stat!  So happy she can wear them all!

I'll be wiping down the baby toys that Quint outgrew last year, finding shelves for bottles and baby food again, washing the burp cloths and looking for deals on those size 2 diapers...lots to do and lots to have fun doing.

A friend said to me "It really is so special that you will get to experience that sweet baby phase again...that little baby on a blanket or staring happily from your arms up into your eyes phase...it goes by so quick"

What a treasure...I couldn't have said it better and that thought was not lost on me at all...

Isn't she a dream?