the day we became parents. {and a winner!}

one year ago today, the hubs flew into my classroom after school gushing with excitement he could barely contain.

the only time the hubs comes into my classroom is when i beg him to he wants to read a story to my students on read across america day (it's next wednesday!) or if i've forgotten something at home and he very nicely drops it off. he never comes in unannounced, so when i saw him sitting and waiting for me after kiss and ride duty, i was startled.

and my socks were blown off when he said,

"babe, we got a match. we have a SON."

and (of course), i started to cry. and quite frankly, i don't think i've stopped since. ;)

we hadn't been expecting to receive a referral for another month or two, so when our program director called the hubs, he assumed she was calling to check up on us since our first social worker had recently left the agency and we were assigned a new one. so imagine his utter surprise and delight when she told him she had our referral! (random sidenote: she actually called me, first, but our classroom phones go straight to voicemail when receiving calls from outside numbers. because, you know, we're supposed to be focusing on those pesky children and all...haha)

the hubs told our program director he was driving over to my school and that he'd call back when we were together. i have no idea how in the world he was able to drive over without getting a speeding ticket or crashing into something. i would have been a wreck!

after hearing the initial news and then collecting myself as best as i could, we called our program director and she proceeded to tell us about our son. OUR SON!!! she told us about this five-and-a-half month-old's history and when he was born and told us how cute he was. and, in true adoptive parent form, all i could think was (altogether now, fellow APs), "just send me the PICTURES!!!"

we hung up and she sent us THE email. thank the good Lord for smartphones because we could pull up our little peanut's face right then and there. and we (okay, just i) cried again. of course!

do you want to see what we saw?

first we saw itty bitty newborn choi boy.

look at that grumpy old man face! ;)

then we saw our new son in the famous red chair.

look at those toes!!! now that i've gotten to know the many faces of choi boy, i'm convinced this picture was taken just after he woke up. this is his "i'm still out of it, give me a minute." face. ;) it's always accompanied by squishy sleepy cheeks -- my fave.

finally, we saw a close up of cb's face.

look at that hair! and that mouth!

looking at these photos made things seem so...*real*. my friend, christine, said something i found really profound on her son's referral-iversary. she said something like, it wasn't what you'd call love at first sight, but it was what made us feel like we were really parents. and that was so true for us, too. sure we thought he was cute, but more than anything, we felt like we were just starting to get to know the boy that became our son.

and you better believe we looked at those referral pictures a zillion and one times and memorized every inch of our little guy's face. and we did the same for every updated photo we received until choi boy was finally in our arms. and every time we looked at those pictures, the feeling of being parents became more real and our love for choi boy grew and grew and GREW. and now that he's home, that love grows deeper still every minute, and i often wonder when my heart will explode because of all the love i have for him.

even though it took nearly ten more months to actually meet our precious son, february 25 will always be the day we became parents.

and how blessed we are to be *his* parents.

dried up boogers and all...;)



and how lucky this person is to be chosen as the winner of the blog-iversary giveaway!



congratulations, kelly @ jon and kelly plus max!

i loved reading everyone's life lessons...so many powerful truths! here's what kelly had to share:

Life lessons? I've learned about a thousand of them since I've become a mom - you can't control everything so just let it happen, ask for help, don't sweat the little things, and things DO happen for a reason you just don't realize that until much later :)

wise stuff, girlfriend.

your goodies will be off in the mail on monday, kelly!