Behind the Scenes

We have been so lucky to receive pictures of our sweet Devi far more frequently than we ever expected. Although it all seems a bit blurred, in addition to staring at her beautiful face, there has been alot going on. So without upstaging the star of the blog, I thought I would share a glimpse of what has been happening behind the scenes.

After receiving Devi's referral phone call, a packet of over a hundred acceptance papers arrived. Some were stapled, some were paper clipped and some were held together with string. Fifty-five of the documents required a notary seal! The hardest one to sign was the document on the top of the stack with Bhargabi's little one inch by one inch picture stapled to it. Our first glimpse of our girl and we were required to sign our names right across her precious face.

By the looks on our faces you know this is one of our happiest days!

The next thing was sharing our news! Our support system had grown weary from waiting right along with us. In fact, people finally quit asking, "Who is she?" or "When will you know something?" This is what made the telling so absolutely wonderful.

Telling our friends Jan and Cindi about Devi.

Sharing Devi with Oma and Opa, Patrick's parents.

Explaining to Konrad and Cayenne that they had suddenly gone down a peg in our pack order.

A couple of days after spreading the word to family in Colorado, this filled-to-the brim box of wonderful hand-me-downs arrived from Lina's closet. Lina is Devi's 5 year old cousin who had been carefully saving things for a long time. Also enclosed were hand written congratulation cards from Lina and her brother Ryan that were so sweet!

Once the word had been spread, we got to work on a few projects. The first of which is Devi's quilt. We have been saving our favorite clothing for the past 18 years waiting for this project to begin. A few of the more memorable pieces are the shirt that Patrick wore when we left on our honeymoon to Jamaica and the dress shirt from his first professional job after completing college. Pictured in Pat's lap is my favorite pants suit which when cutting it up I noticed "Made in India" on the tag!

We also managed to squeeze in a trip to Mexico with friends. It was a wonderful opportunity to exhale, get a little R&R (we both had our first real massages!) and regroup. It was the strangest sensation to feel like we were leaving our girl behind, when really we were traveling closer to where she is. No matter that she is half way around the world from us, she is never far from our heart!

Last week on Devi's 6 month birthday, we took a suggestion from Jenya's family and decided to celebrate Devi's 6 month mark. We wore silly party hats and had noise makers and sang Happy Half Birthday to her...complete with cake and candle. We don't need to tell you what we wished for on Devi's behalf! This event was captured on video to share with her when she arrives home.

Well, there you have it, a behind the scenes look of what parents-to-be do with their free time! Although it just wouldn't be right to end this post without a peek at our darling daughter. So the final photo is one we just received that was taken on May 1st. Devi is hard to make out, but I love the photo because it gives a good idea of what the nursery is like. The woman in the picture is Dr. Butta who has worked for Matri Sneha for years and knows all the children very well. Devi is in the green and we are told she now weighs 13.3 pounds and is 23 inches long.

Dr. Butta with our Devi Rose!

My Birthday Wish!

"Be careful what you wish for" has always been my motto, but not anymore! The smoke swirl of all those extinguished birthday candles barely had a chance to dissipate before granting my birthday wish this year. MORE PICTURES!

There happened to be another family who adopted a child through the Dillon India Program in the 90's who went back to visit the orphanage while on vacation. While there, they took pictures of our Devi Rose. These were taken on March 20th, 2007. Patrick said he teared up when viewing this photo for the first time...seeing someone hold our girl!

And if I wasn't spoiled enough, here is our precious little one having sweet dreams at 2 and a half months. This picture was taken on February 7th 2007, long before we knew she was ours. Receiving photos of a child this young is rare and we feel so incredibly lucky to have it.