In June we went on vacation with our friends, the Prestidges, to a cabin and lake in Oklahoma. We had been discussing names for our little girl with the kids, and Sam was convinced we would name her Elinor. Dave thought her name should be Sun (maybe a middle name), because she would be the light of our family. I did not agree with either name. On the vacation, Norah Jones came on the Pandora radio, and I realized I loved the name! I looked it up, and it means, sunlight, honor and compassion. Elinor is another version of Norah. I showed David and he said "we don't have to look any more! That's it!" Sam and I agreed too. We finally landed on a name!
June ended without a call from Holt. I received an email update about the June referral group and other news. I cried and cried. We felt like an infertile couple looking at another negative pregnancy test. No Norah. It turns out that we did not change places on the list, we were still #2! The last 2 groups just did not have children that matched our family.
I decided I would be more reserved and not get my hopes up so much for September. Announcing our expectations the last 2 referral months had led to a lot of explaining and disappointments for us. So we went into September hopeful, but quiet about it. AND THEN IT CAME!!!
Holt called me on my lunch break at work on Thursday, Sept. 6, announcing a probable match for us! She is a girl named Watsana, 11 months old, and very healthy. After some description about her, Thoa asked if I would like to see her file. YES PLEASE!! Dave and I agreed on the phone that we would not open the email until later that night. After dinner, and getting the kids to do something quiet in the other room, we opened it up. The picture on the email was of our daughter. We were finally looking at our Norah.
