Still in Shock!

What a week it has been! We have lots of photos from referral day but my computer is still being uncooperative so I hope to post them soon. I did want to write about our day while it is very fresh in my head (not that I will ever forget one moment of it!)

I am sure if you saw my post a few back I was very anxious to see rumors. Now I knew that we would not be getting our referral but I have bloggy friends that are ahead of me and of course I wanted to be a few days closer to Emma. So what happened next took us by total surprise.
On Tuesday, July 21, 2009 Mike and I were at work just like any other day. It was nearing lunch time and I was in the operating room when our secretary called in the room to let me know I had a phone call. Now since I am in surgery no one EVER calls me unless it is an emergency so I quickly relayed to them to find out who it was. The response I got was Phillip Aldridge (Who? the name wasn't familiar to me). I told them to take a message and when I finished our case I would return his call. I was just happy to know there were no emergency at home. I finish the case and go to the front desk to retrieve my message and written on a piece of paper was: Phillip Aldridge, his phone number and the words: with help (I asked our secretary, with help for what? Thinking it was not important, Terri and I went to eat. While we were eating I kept looking at the number and finally remembered (859) area code is Lexington and the only person I could think of from Lexington was our agency A Helping Hand (a light bulb went off in my head and of course I laughed thinking how she just came up with, with help!) I decided I should see what they needed, I was sure it was something updated or our contact info since we are starting to get close to the 29th. I grabbed my cell and went outside only to have a message on my phone from Phillip also saying that I needed to call him today. So I made the call only to find out he was on another line and would call me back in 5 minutes at the front desk. I then called Mike to chat and told him that I thought it was weird that Phillip had called (BTW, Phillip is not our family advocate, ours was out of town so he was covering for her and we had never met him). At that moment Michael said someone was calling him with a 859 number so I told him to take the call and I would call him later to see what they needed. I hung up the phone and within 30 seconds the phone was ringing at the desk and I could see the same number. I was very confused as to why 2 different people would be calling both of us at the same time. JJ, our secretary, said it was my agency so I picked up the phone to hear...
Phillip: "Kim, this is Phillip and I have Mike on the line."
Kim: "Hi Phillip, how are you?"(thinking why are we both on the phone)
Phillip: "Well, I am great. Referrals came today."
Kim: "Yes, I know that is great"
Phillip: "I just wanted to let you know that your referral is here."
Kim & Mike: "What?"
Kim: "It can't be, it's not our time."
Phillip: "There was a mistake with your date. We thought it was logged in on the 29th but they had it earlier"
Kim: "What, Oh my gosh! I can't believe this!" (with this I start scrambling for anything to write on)
Phillip: "Her name is Yu Xeing and she was born on January 2, 2008. (I started trying to figure out how old she was and missed half of what he was saying)
"I have 3 pictures of her that I have attached to an email and are sending now for you to open" (With that I yelled to Mike, "don't you dare open that!" Mike said "I won't!
Phillip giggled and I told him we wanted to be together to see her for the first time.
He gave me very limited other info about who would be contacting us and sending the file by FedEx and the call was over.
I was in total shock so I ran down the hall to call Mike in private. Neither one of us knew what to say as we had planned for this day and we were totally not ready for this! We called our Moms (what a funny call that was) and then decided that we should drive to Lexington to get her file (73 miles away!) My best friends at work Terri and Betty were so excited and helped me get out the door as quickly as possible. Mike picked me up and we were off to Lex!
Now, a long time ago we had decided that on referral day we would take the day off, be home for the call (tape that) and then would go to get her file and bring it back so the family could be here to see her for the first time with us. Heck, I have been there for all my nieces and nephews births and I wanted them here for Emma's delivery.
On the way, Mike told me about going into work this morning and a ladybug walking up the window (he laughed and said, yes referrals should be coming today). The odd part of this is that Mike works on the 33rd floor and you never see any bugs up that high. It gave me cold chills.
We got to AHH's office and as soon as we got inside Mike told the receptionist that we got our referral today. She laughed and said you must be the Kramer's and took us down the hall to Phillips office. When we got to the door Phillip smiled and started to pull Emma's file out of the FedEx envelope and I quickly told him not to show us and explained how we wanted to be with our family for that moment. I even asked him to seal the package so we wouldn't be tempted to look. We had a wonderful conversation with him and he let us know we would have our translated info on Thursday or Friday. I gave him a big hug and we headed back to Louisville.
Now, we had talked to all our family and they were coming to our house. Tommi and her family had even left their mini vacation it St Louis when I called her to be back to see Emma (they were hours away). We drove home in shock as Emma sat on my lap. We knew that as soon as we opened that envelope that our lives would change forever. We got back to the house and it was decorated with signs, balloons, flowers, champainge and cake. We couldn't believe DeeAnna and the gang had done this so quickly. We decided to order pizza and wait for everyone to get here. The only thing missing was I knew that my Dad couldn't make it back in town to be with us, but I did get to talk to him. Two and a half hours later, after everyone got here and had eaten we sat down to open our file and share Emma with everyone. We told them that we were going to get to look at her first and then we would show her to everyone. (I was so nervous about seeing her face for the first time hoping that the connection would be there). Mike opened the envelope, pulled out the pictures and our hearts melted as we saw our beautiful daughter for the first time. We are so in love with her!
Our daughter, the one we have waited almost 4 years for, was worth every minute we waited. She was so meant for us. I can't wait to share all the information about her with you as soon as we have it. Oh, and did I tell you that Emma was born on my Mom's birthday January 2nd and we received her referral on my Grandma's birthday July 21!

Sorry that was so long but I wanted to share our story with all of you. We laugh as we sit here thinking about how long we have waited and planned for this day but never in a million years did we think it would happen this way. We would like to thank all of you for being here for us during this long wait and can't wait to share Miss Emma Yu with all of you!

We love you!
Michael and Kim