***Back in October of 1994, while in highschool, I met Mark! Yep! I've known my handsome man for 25 years now! (Thanks, Tommy!) The first time I saw Mark he was a teenager with long hair tucked behind his ear and he was playing a game of chess. A quarter of a century later... here we are!
***In October 2005 I got to be in the audience of Oprah's 'favorite things' show! Yep. That makes the list! Not only was this an awesome experience, but is what we have referred to as the turning of tides in what had been a really rough few years of undergrad & medical school, failed fertility treatments, failed adoptions, surgeries, car accidents, our apartment being robbed and our apartment burning down. After the Oprah show/giveaway though things in our lives took a turn for the better, and it wasn't long after that we found out that we had been chosen to become Noah's parents!
***During October 2006 we got to go to Disneyland and the beach as parents with our sweet little 8 month old Noah while Mark was on rotations in California. This may sounds trivial, but some of my best childhood memories growing up surround either Disneyland, the beach or Halloween...so for all of those to collide on our first Halloween as parents of this child we waited so long for - it was magical for me. Oh, and Noah was a lion for his first Halloween.
***During October 2010 I found out that our IVF procedure using our last remaining embryos was successful (I was pregnant with Max)!
***October 2011 we were moving into our new home (first-time home buyers!) and getting settled after moving here from Arizona when Max's colic miraculously stopped after several months and he became a calm, happy baby!
***October 3, 2012 we officially started this adoption process! We figured that since it would likely take a couple of years (hahaha) to complete and Max had just turned one that it felt like good spacing to have him and his sister be about 3 years apart. Little did we know...
***October 2017 my cousin Lauren & friend Natalie both separately told me about a fitness girl on Instagram that I should follow who was in Haiti on a Haitian Roots trip. I did start following her page and because of that I saw a picture of her and her husband holding the sweetest little baby girls at an unknown (to me) orphanage. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the picture and I ached to find out who they were and if they had been matched to a family...I wasn't given any information on the twins, but was told they were in the process of being adopted. Later I would find out that those little girls were our twins! They certainly were in the process of being adopted when I saw that photo... by us (we just didn't know it yet)!
***October 11, 2018 (one year ago today, and a year after seeing that picture of those precious twins) I got the call we had been waiting on for 6 years! We had been matched! I had just changed our adoption facilitator's (Chareyl's) phone number to ring as the Hallelujah chorus for when she would call me. So, later that morning when my phone actually started belting out that song as if from heaven I was weak in the knees. When I answered the phone Chareyl said, "Well, Holly, today is the day you have been waiting for. You are the proud mom to 2 year old twin baby girls!" I fell to my knees and cried. Chareyl waited patiently. It was such an emotional and joyous day! Throughout that day, and the next few days, we relished in sharing the exciting news of our match. We documented a few people's responses and compiled them into this short 30 second video. It makes me smile every single time I watch it. I definitely recommend watching it with your sound up...
***Lastly, right on Halloween 2018 we received our official referral from the Haitian government for the twins! That seriously couldn't have been more perfect for me! I was literally dressed up at Max's Halloween party at school when I found out!
So! You can see why October really is my favorite month of the year! I also look forward to having the girls home to enjoy next October together as a complete family. To sharing their first time crunching autumn leaves and dressing up in Halloween costumes together. In the meantime I will relish this trip down memory lane. I'll remember the amazing, euphoric day that was one year ago today. I will hope for more amazing news and memories yet this October. And I will enjoy everything that I love about October with my boys right now.
Happy October, everybody!
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