I Was Wrong

Okay, I know that I left you all with the impression that the updates and surprise pictures were the best birthday gift ever. But I was wrong. By some miraculous move of the hand of God (and I am totally NOT exaggerating in the least - my fellow adopting moms will vouch for me!) we got even better news on Friday, August 1st. I called in to check my voicemails from the car, while The Boss and I drove in to town. I was heading to a work out at the local Curves (are you so impressed that I worked out ON VACATION?!) while The Boss shopped around for fresh corn to add to our dinner feast.

This was the only voicemail I had: "Tracy, this is Ashley from Living Hope. Happy Birthday. I hope you are having a great time away with your family. When you get this message, I need you to call the office, it's urgent that we speak with you as soon as possible."

Now, given the nature of the urgent phone calls that have passed between me and our agency, I'm sure you will understand when I tell you that for a brief second, my heart dropped. Well, to be truthful, it almost stopped. I gulped and dialed back to LH as quickly as I could, while hitting The Boss in the arm, telling him that it was urgent. Urgent, I tell you!

The receptionist was so excited to hear my name when I announced who I was and who I needed to speak with. But it seems Miss Ashley was out on an appointment and wanted to share this news herself. I begged her to tell me first if it was good urgent or bad urgent. She smiled (I could hear it!) and said since Ashley would be out for the rest of the morning, she guessed she'd better tell me. I mean, after all, we're only in town to get a cell signal for a short period of time, right?! Yes, yes, tell me!

So, as much as Ashley wanted to be the one to scream and rejoice with us over this news, the wonderful, sweet receptionist said the sweetest four words in the adoptive family's dictionary:

"We got your LOA!"

Yes, our Letter of Approval. This is THE official document that signifies the CCAA's specific approval of The Gang to adopt little WBN, (known here as Aidan!). It was at that very moment sitting on Miss Ashley's desk. In Pennsylvania. In the United States. Waiting for our signature. Waiting for a return trip to China, to trigger the Travel Approval process for The Boss and I to wing our way to our daughter.

And even more amazing, this beautiful official document arrived at Living Hope on July 31st. My 40th birthday. I cried. I laughed. Oh, my Jesus. He knows just what I need.

See, what I didn't tell ANYONE, at all, ever in this whole process, is that when we submitted our Letter of Intent (LOI, the document to signify to the CCAA that we wanted to be specifically matched to WBN), I just happened to mention to my sweet Jesus that it would be an amazing birthday present to get our LOA for my birthday. I knew it was not realistically likely, as most LOA's don't follow LOI quite that quickly. I mean, we just submitted our LOI on 7/16. Our agency had told us that, with our request to expedite, we'd likely see an LOA in early to mid-August. We received LOA on 7/31. That's 15 days. Two weeks. They were wrong. It's okay, I totally forgive them for it :)

And I was wrong. As great as those precious photos and medical reports are, and believe me, I've hardly stopped staring at her sweet face!, the LOA. On. My. 40th. Birthday. far surpasses anything else I could have received for my birthday. I've never been happier to be wrong in my life!