Bundle of Joy #1

I am pleased to announce the first of the "martini girls" just got her referral and is a proud mom to Juliana, a 7 month old gorgeous and happy little girl currently residing in an orphanage in China!!!

The "Martini Girls" are actually three of us who met on-line (this seems to be a habit with me, meeting the important people in my life on-line). We are all adopting from China and have log-in-dates (the very important date your paperwork gets logged into the China Center for Adoption Affairs, the Chinese agency that facilitates the adoption process) close to each other. What this means is that we will all be getting our referrals, the documentation that tells us we are now parents and exactly who we are parents of, within months of each other.

We get together occasionally (lately, every chance we can) to commiserate over the wait, discuss daycare VS nanny, what stroller to buy, bitch about the wait, how to fit everything we need into our NYC apartments and most importantly, have a cocktail (or four) and BITCH about the wait. I'm sorry, did I mention that we BITCH ABOUT THE WAIT!!!!!!. We occasionally include our husbands in the festivities and have even sent them out for the manly steak and "bitch about the wives BITCHING ABOUT THE WAIT" dinner.

We were lucky enough to have scheduled a dinner for all six of us last night, the same day Lori and Marc got to see a picture of their daughter for the first time. I made them come over to our house, because I didn't want to embarrass anyone (me) by starting to cry in the restaurant and am I glad I did, because as soon as I saw her picture, I started to cry because at that moment, this whole thing became real. There is an actual baby at the end of this very long journey. And she was right there, in the picture. Ok, so it wasn't my baby, but a baby none the less. But she looked happy and healthy and just like Marc - I'm not kidding. I looked at the picture and then at Italian, medium dark haired and bearded Marc and there was a distint resemblance (minus the beard). And I knew that I get to share in their joy. And be part of their amazing journey. And then be part of Michelle and Evan's. And then, it will be our turn. And we will have our daughter. And I smiled. A really big, happy peaceful smile................And then Arny said he hopes she looks like me....