Going Back To Referral Day

Like in the classic and timeless movie "Wayne's World", I am going to take you back to referral day...dododo, dododo, dododo, dododo.

Unfortunately, Doug had to work on referral day. Not only did he have to work that day, he had a completely full and crazy schedule. He had Mandarin class (he takes a class once a week offered by his company), then a lunch meeting with a vendor and then a very important two hour presentation meeting. You never know when the call will come in or if it will come in at all, so I told him to have his cell phone charged and with him at all times. I had informed my agency that we wanted to three way the call since Doug had to go to work. So, we were ready.

I knew I would never survive the day sitting at home by myself, so I had my mom come over to wait with me. She came over around 10:30 AM and we honestly didn't expect the phone to ring until that afternoon. I had my piece of paper with pretty ladybugs printed on it and my list of referral questions, a pen and the cordless phone sitting on the kitchen bar downstairs.

Around 11:30, my mom and I were upstairs looking at the nursery and the phone rings. We look at each other and I said "It can't be..." I see the caller ID and it is my social worker. OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG. I start to shake. I have to grab a crappy cordless upstairs phone that I can barely hear on. It is the receptionist at my SW's office saying she is going to call Doug for the three way call. She says, "If I accidentally hang up on you, I will call back." I start to run downstairs and...she hangs up on me. That's ok, I needed to change phones anyway. I position myself at the kitchen bar and she calls back. She puts my social worker on and Doug is on the phone too. (Doug got the call as he was leaving Mandarin class to go to his lunch meeting. He took notes in the company copy room!)

I hear my SW say, "I have good news for you." My mom is looking at me with tears in her eyes and is snapping pictures. Then she says, "It's a girl and she is 10 months old." I start to cry. She starts giving me details. I look down at that lovely sheet of paper that I had in front of me with all of those questions and ladybugs, and I totally flip that freakin' thing over to the blank side and start taking notes. I am scribbling down her name, birth date, etc. That piece of paper had all of the details written down but it looked like a complete mess. So much for organization... As the call was winding down, my mom had to remind me to look at my list of questions just in case my SW missed anything. My SW told me that my agency was going to send pictures of Briana later that day via e-mail.

Of course, once I get off the phone I hugged my mom and we cried. Once I got myself together, I called Doug back. He was on top of the world, but he had to go to his lunch meeting. So, I start making the calls. My sister, my sister-in-law, my grandma and the list goes on. My sister was so excited that she hopped in the car and came over. It took hours for me to call and e-mail everyone. While I was working on that, I had several of my friends (you know who you are) that kept e-mailing me asking where her pictures were! :)

I promised Doug that I would not look at Briana's pictures until he got home. He promised to come home as soon as his meeting was over, and he got home a little before 4PM. My mom and sister told us they wanted to give me and Doug private time see the photos, so they took off for a little while. We hounded, um I mean called, our agency asking when we would finally get the photos, and the contact at our agency said she was sending them right then. I guess it was around 4:30PM. We hung up with her and we sat at the desk in my office. With one click, we were going to see our baby. When I clicked that attachment and it opened, I couldn't believe my eyes. She was beautiful - absolutely beautiful. Insert sobbing here...

When my mom and sister came back to the house, then they got to click the attachment. The picture pops up and the looks on their faces were priceless. Insert sobbing here...

You can see above that my sister bought me these beautiful roses and my mom bought me a huge ladybug balloon. Then my mom gave me a beautiful necklace with three hearts that says, "Today, Tomorrow and Forever."

After my mom and sister left, Doug and I printed out Briana's pictures. Every time I walked into the bedroom that evening, Doug was sitting on the bed just staring at her. It was the sweetest thing ever. I couldn't stop looking at her either.

So, that was referral day. It was one of the most monumental and amazing days of my life. And Doug and I did video our reaction when we saw our baby's face for the first time, but I don't know how to post it just yet. So, hope to do that soon! Stay tuned...dododo, dododo, dododo, dododo.