A year ago today...

...my telephone rang shortly after 12:00 PM. For months I had carried that phone around with me PRAYING for our OUT call. For months I checked it to make sure it actually WORKED and was ON. For months I wore sweatshirts so my phone could be in the sweatshirt pocket. For months when I took a shower I took the phone into the bathroom and laid it on the floor by the shower so I wouldn't miss the call. But my phone rang, on January 2nd, 2006, and guess what? I was in the shower and missed the call because that was the ONE day I was NOT expecting the call. Fresh out of the shower, moments later, I checked my answering machine because I thought I heard it ring when I was in the shower. There it was...the flashing light...and my agency telling me to call them back ASAP. I nearly threw up. Truly. I frantically dialed that number, said who I was only to hear to these words "well, you are DONE, she is coming home!" "OMG SHE IS COMING HOME" I SCREAMED!!!!!!!!!!!! I shook, cried, hyperventilated (that's what I do sometimes when I get overly worked up) and babbled on and on for over 20 minutes to my agency. I can't remember the conversation...just the part about us being DONE and get ready to travel in 2-4 weeks. This...the night after my lowest of low post on my old blog. We were done, and my heart was SINGING. I hung up and called Kris at work. It's real hard to get ahold of him...you usually have to go through several people to reach him at the Sheriff's Office. One of our super good family friends answered the phone at work and he KNEW before I even told him. He nearly started screaming with excitement and then paged Kris. I just asked Kris what he recalls about that phone call I made to him a year ago today and he said "you were screaming and crying, but it was happy, so I knew, because I couldn't understand anything you were telling me you were talking SO fast!!" When he got home from work he hugged so tight and I lost it, and so did he. It was like all the emotions of the previous 6 months of waiting for her came out...and trust me, it came out and we cried. Then we laughed and went to dinner with Big Brother Alec. And that was today, a year ago, that we finally had the burden of the process lifted...and the packing began.

So this, such a wonderful memory to me, comes with a very, very heavy heart today as I worry about the current situation in Guatemala. I worry and pray for all of those children now trapped without a system to protect them as of yesterday, when the new law went into effect. I worry and pray for all the families in process right now, waiting for their "dream moment" like I had a year ago. I worry and pray for the THOUSANDS of children that are going to now be left behind. And then I look at my daughter and feel so blessed that she was given the opportunity to come here, and that we were given the opportunity to be her parents. So tonight, when you say your prayers, pray for the children in Guatemala...they need your prayers for their safety, their well-being, their health, and their FUTURE!