A Moment Worth Celebrating

I had been planning a referral party since the moment we got put on the waitlist.  And yet, somehow, it still ended up being a thrown together, last minute event!  So is the story of my life!  I guess it just wouldn't be fitting to have anything related to to the adoption go according to MY plan, right?!?  ;)

Another thing that didn't go according to plan??  PICTURES!!!  I planned to take pictures NON-STOP...and yet somehow I ended up with four.  FOUR?!?!  I can't even believe it.  So for all my friends spread across the country who asked for photos since they missed it - I'm sorry!  I've got NADA!  Ugh.  Believe me, I'm more disappointed than you. B-E-L-I-E-V-E-M-E-!

But anyway...here's how it "went down" =)

We got our referral on Monday.
Ran around getting the referral packet done on Tuesday.
Stared at pictures of our daughter Wednesday and Thursday.
Decided to go visit our family for the weekend so quickly did laundry and drove up Friday.
Got home Sunday evening and decided to throw a party for the following Sunday.
Spent Monday-Friday staring at pictures of our daughter.
Saturday I decided I should probably clean (still needed to do laundry and had YET to cook a meal since the referral).  AND made cookies.
Sunday was the party.

And JUST because I needed some added stress - FB kept changing the time on me!  I don't know how many times I fixed it, but every time someone would check it {whether from my computer or elsewhere} it would say a different time....I had everything from "12:00pm - 3:00pm" to "3:00pm - 9:00pm"!  Yeah...no idea!  FB is a little crazy on their evites, FYI.

So Sunday morning we woke up {to our cell phone alarm, as always} and couldn't figure out WHAT was up with the clocks.  I decided my husband must have been on CRACK when he set them the week before when the power went out...so got up, took a shower, cleaned, made breakfast...you know, the usual!  Half hour later, I go to check on my husband who is STILL in bed and get him up reminding him we are in NURSERY for the early service.  Yikes!  Once HE gets up....finally he realizes that its DAYLIGHT SAVINGS!!!  No WONDER our clocks don't match up.  Fortunately, I was going by my cell phone, which switches automatically at midnight.  Hmm....still wondering how I missed that though!!!  Well... definitely explains our tiredness {and now I feel EXTRA bad for making HUBS stay up extra late cleaning with me...OOPS!}!!!

We literally had to WAKE Monkey up from a dead sleep and carry him to the car.  I changed him/fed him/styled him IN NURSERY...hahaha!  But that was a really fun morning b/c I got to show off T's pictures at church!  Love love LOVE sharing her pictures with people!!!  LOVE IT!

After nursery we attended the second service and afterwards spent even MORE time showing off our daughter!  It was actually hard to leave church on time...but I kept getting texts on what time the party actually started so I knew I better head home or I would have people at my house before WE made it!  Thank goodness we left when we did.  I just had time to do some final tidy work.  My house was FAR from perfect....but really WHAT could they expect...we just had a baby!!! =)

I was a little nervous about how many people would end up being in my tiny little house at one time.  A couple parties in the past have felt a little over-crowded...and with the weather, I knew we couldn't explode into the backyard if needed.  We kept it as kind of an "open house" which worked out PERFECT!  People kind of came and went so we never had too many people at the same time!  And just as we would be saying goodbye to a group of friends, more would show up {with more food}.

Hubs and I provided hot dogs and burgers, all the toppings, and drinks {OH and a couple desserts...duh!}.  Everyone who stopped by brought some snacks!  We had salads, crackers, chips, dips, hummus, chilli....oh and I can't remember but a TON of food!  It was delicious and awesome!  But the company was even better!

And EVEN THOUGH I made sure to put "no gifts" there were some definite rule breakers in our midst! =P  But THANK YOU everyone for the thoughtful cards and gifts.  I was more worried that people were going to think I was trying to throw myself a shower when in all honesty I just wanted to SHOW T OFF!!!!

It was such an awesome party {if I do say so myself} and the only thing that would have made it truly better, is to have T there!!  Soon enough though.  Soon enough...

*****

Huge thank you to all the amazing support yesterday!  Several of you purchased from our fundraisers - thank you SO much!!!  You kind of wonder after 19 months of fundraising if you've tapped out your resources, so to speak...but you guys BLOW ME AWAY.  No...GOD blows me away!  Thank you...sincerely.

And for all you who emailed, FBed, commented with your encouragement and excitement - THANK YOU!  We are so overjoyed to finally have a countdown to meeting our T....but having each and every one of you sharing in that excitement QUADRUPLES the joy!  I love YOU for loving our T right along with us!!!  I know I say this all the time...but I can't wait to share with her our journey to bring her home and each of you who helped, supported, and encouraged us on that journey!

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!!