One day... one phone call... one year

Some days will be forever marked as the ones that changed everything. One moment, life as usual. The next, the world is bigger, brighter, miraculously different.  Some days will never be forgotten and will always be filled with so much palpable emotion.

One year ago this very day, I have no idea recollection of how it began but I know how it ended... coincidentally very similarly to the afternoon of a very memorable late-July day.

Because one year ago this very day was a Tuesday, I'm assuming I woke up, got the Kindergartner ready for and dropped off at school, and then I'm sure I came home to either read, relax, or do chores before heading off to start my work shift at 11 am.  Sometime around 3:30 or 4:00 I felt like I NEEDED to check my phone.  And there on the screen was the adoption agency's missed call and the message to call back as soon as possible.

I remember grabbing my notebook and a pen and sitting down in a chair in the admin office, the exact same place I sat a little over 5 years before.  My hands shook and heart raced as I pressed the call button and willed myself to breathe, listen as carefully as I could, and write down and remember all the pertinent information.  Based on what I knew I had forgotten to ask with Xavier, I had the wherewithal to ask that very important question to determine who it was we were going to be waiting for.

A few more phone calls back and forth to Brandon and the agency and we were officially waiting. Waiting to learn more, waiting to see, waiting with hope that we would soon be meeting our daughter. 

Brandon and I aren't good at keeping secrets or waiting to tell exciting news. Based on our personalities and the fact that these phone calls always come while we are at work, it isn't really something we could hide.  Within the hour, we had told both sets of parents and our coworkers... those who love us and have been waiting just as much as we have. 

That evening we sat down with X and told him he was finally going to have a baby sister. {"But I told you I wanted a brother."} We told our 5-year-old because we knew we couldn't keep it a secret. Because we KNEW he wanted, needed, and deserved to know and to hear it first from us. Because we knew that not even a "regular" pregnancy is a sure thing.

One year ago this very day, our threesome learned we were growing and knew we would never be the same. One year ago today we started a countdown.... relishing and experiencing moments that marked the last time we would do something with just one kiddo... waiting for the day we would finally hold our little girl. Yet in that moment, we had no real idea what was truly coming our way.