September 29, 2010-September 29, 2011

Wow!!! One year ago today, we got the LONG awaited phone call from our adoption agency.... the REFERRAL CALL!! Yes, that's right one year ago today, I heard all about this precious baby named Bo Jia Qun. This baby that was hand picked by God to be a part of our family. I was waiting in the car line to pick up Brandon from middle school when my cell phone rang. When I saw the number, I knew what it meant!! I knew the number was my adoption agency, and I knew they were expecting referrals, and that we should be in that batch of referrals. I'm pretty sure my heart skipped a beat, maybe more than one!! LOL!! I learned as much info as possible over the phone from our sweet family coordinator named Leah. She told me her age, 7 months (almost 8 months), her province was Jiangxi, her orphanage was Poyang SWI, her birthdate was 2-4-10, and that she had hair! I called Tom right away! Next to know was Brandon, he got in the car as I was screaming with joy!!

The next step was to wait for the email with a picture atttached! We didn't have to wait that long, just a few hours, but man did it seem like an eternity!!  Tom saw her face first, then he called me in tears to say the email had arrived. He said, "Trac, she's beautiful!!" I went to Lori's house to see the picture. It was too far to drive home and I had just dropped Brandon off for a football game, then go back to watch the game, plus get Blake from taekwondo. It was a crazy day, but I dropped everything to see this beautiful baby. Scott was with me when I opened the email. I think the first words out of my mouth was, "There she is!!" with tears in my eyes, I couldn't believe she was finally here. We waited sooo long to see this baby, and there she was!

This was our first picture of beautiful Elise!! This is what I saw when I opened the email.

It seems like a whirlwind of emotions over the next 24 hours. We waited on the FedEx package to be delivered the next day, which contained more pictures and all of the info we desperately wanted to know about our baby. This package also contained the acceptance letter, which had to me signed and returned to our agency.

Today marks the day that Elise truely joined our family! This is the day she became a Brooks, at least in our hearts, minds and soul, she was our daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, great niece. Sooo much love for this baby that lived halfway around the world! This was the day we put a face and a name to the baby we had prayed for.

These were the other two referral photos we recieved.

There have been a lot of changes in Bo Jia Qun's life over the last year. Her name changed to Elise Jia Brooks. She gained a mommy, daddy, 2 brothers and a sister. She gained A LOT of extended family members as well: grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, cousins. There are soo many people who love her and care about her. She has been blessed with love and care, she is thriving in her new home!

We couldn't have asked for a better baby! She is a perfect fit in our family. She is loud at times, she is stubborn at times, she loves to cuddle, she loves to give hugs and kisses, she is everything we ever wanted and more, she is everything we dreamed of. We are so thankful to be blessed by the miracle of adoption!! 

Here are a few pics from our day, September 29th, 2011. I dreamed of and prayed for days like this for 5 years!  So happy to be posting about our days with Elise rather than counting down to getting her!!

Waiting on the doctor, would you believe poor little Leisy (our pet name for Elise) has Bronciolitis? It's been a rough week for her with eye surgery and now bronciolitis, but you'd never know form the smile she has!

Still waiting.... passing the time with books

This is the face Elise makes when I tell her to "say cheese"

Sweet baby girl!! (I think she knows she's cute!!)

Thanks again to everyone who helped bring this beautiful baby home!! Your prayers and help continue to be much appreciated!!