Love At First Sight

One year ago today Tony and I saw our sweet Lily’s face for the very first time! After so many months of waiting it was absolutely indescribable to see the face of the child we had loved for so long.

During the wait to bring Lily home Tony and I had talked about what we thought Lily might look like countless times. Though we each had dreamed (both while we were awake and asleep!) about Lily neither of us had a clear picture in our mind of what we thought Lily would actually look like. We had so many questions….Would she be bald or have a full head of hair? Would she be chubby or skinny? Big or tiny? Happy or sad?

I think my biggest question really was would I feel something…anything...when I finally saw our daughter’s face. The answer is ‘YES!’ I felt something…I felt everything…I felt my heart skip a beat…I felt my breath catch in my throat…I felt hot tears pour down my face…I felt like a MOTHER looking at the face of my beautiful child for the first time. I felt blessed beyond measure!

Tony and I started off that morning by stalking the Fed Ex delivery man, John. There have been so many ‘God Things’ that have happened during our journey to and with Lily. One of those ‘God Things’ was meeting John. He shared with us that he was adopted and he was so excited to be part of our adoption experience. He was so great and was a wonderful and unexpected part of our Referral Day!

After John dropped off the package that contained the pictures of our sweet Lily Tony and I had to get lost for a few hours and let our agency process the referral information. Tony and I headed out to a nearby diner for breakfast. While we were there Mary Beth surprised us by stopping by to help us pass the time. Little did we know that we wouldn’t have long to wait. Before the food we had ordered arrived our agency called and said we could come back and see our little sweetie! When we left the restaurant we found a huge bouquet of balloons attached to our car courtesy of Mary Beth.


When we arrived at the agency we had a short wait before we could meet with Sandy, our China Coordinator. There was a young girl in the waiting room playing while her Foster Mother filled out some paperwork. She and I started talking and playing together. She asked me why we were there and I told her Tony and I were waiting to see a picture of our daughter for the first time. When we got called back to meet with Sandy my new little friend said thank you and goodbye. As I walked away she called out and said, “Miss TJ, I know you are going to be a good mommy.” Can you believe that? Another 'God Thing'. They were just the words I needed to here at that moment. That sweet little girl had me in tears before I even got into Sandy’s office.

A little angel with just the words I needed to hear.

Sandy, our China Coordinator, right after she showed us Lily's beautiful pictures!

This was the first picture we saw of our little Lily:

Tony and I stared at Lily's picture for the longest time. We looked at her sweet little face...her chubby cheeks, her beautiful smoochy lips, her sad eyes. We tried to figure out what Lily was holding in her hands…but didn’t learn until days later that it was chili peppers. Tony looked at the little outfit Lily had on and said when we brought Lily home we would definitely dress her in more girly looking outfits!

This is the second picture Sandy showed us:


Tony thought she looked like a tiny little Michelin baby. This was (and is) hands down Daddy’s favorite picture.

This is the third picture we saw of our Lily and the picture affectionately referred to in the adoption world as the mug shot:


When I saw this picture I thought that Sandy had saved the best for last. This picture absolutely touched my heart. Those beautiful brown eyes…those beautiful rosebud lips. I needed so much to kiss those beautiful lips and see those brown eyes smile! I couldn’t get to China fast enough to hold Lily in my arms!!

I had so much fun taking these pictures of Lily with her referral pictures this morning. I think I will do it every year!

Once we finished the paperwork at the agency we made about a million telephone calls. We told everyone just how beautiful our little girl was and that...No, they couldn't be the first person to see her picture!

We had invited both of our families to dinner that evening to share our wonderful news with everyone at the same time. We had made up little Chinese take out food containers with fortune cookies and a wallet size picture of Lily in her pink snowsuit. We passed out the containers and everyone opened them at the same time. You could hear a collective gasp as everyone saw our beautiful Lily for the first time. There were a lot of tears, hugs, and laughter as we all marveled at the beautiful new addition God has chosen for our family.

It was a truly wonderful, wonderful day from start to finish. I can't believe it's already been one year ago!

We had a great day today, too. I will post more about that later. I think this post is long enough...okay...too long! It's just been so much fun looking back and remembering all the happy details!