What a Difference a Year Can Make...

Exactly one year ago, I published perhaps the most depressing blog post I have ever written . I had missed a race I had been anticipating for many months for a potential adoption that fell through at the last minute. Well, this year I signed up to run the triathlon once again. We were not expecting to adopt a baby anytime soon, and so there was nothing to stand in my way of running the race this time around.

Having written that, let me introduce you to...

Baby Claudia.

Just over three weeks ago, we received a phone call from a lawyer in Idaho, to whom we had sent our adoption profile, but with whom we had never had any verbal contact, in fact, we had almost forgotten about him. He called us and said, "I have a baby for you, are you interested?" Well, you can guess what our answer was.

Sarah and I hopped on a plane as soon as we could, and spent the next two weeks in Idaho at Tim's parents house while we jumped through all the legal hoops to get little Claudia home. When we left Connecticut, we had no idea how long we would have to be gone - it could have been anywhere from two to up to twelve weeks. We couldn't have been happier that it only took two weeks. As soon as we got the go ahead, Sarah, Claudia and I drove to Utah to spend a few days with my family... just in time for me to run my triathlon!

Our group consisted of Me, my mom Myrna, my sisters Kristin and Kelli, my niece Jordan, my cousin Whitney, my aunt Colleen, my mom's friend Joann, and Kristin's friend Holly.

The morning dawned cold and rainy, but we put our brave faces on (along with some old crazy knit hats we dug out of my parents' closet), and hit the road. When we got to the race site, we were informed that the powers that be had deemed the air temperature too cold for the swim portion of the race, so they replaced the 300 meter swim with a one mile run. Then we did 13 mile bike, followed by another 3 mile run. It was kind of a bummer not to get to do the swim, but it was still great! I finished the race in 1 hour and 45 minutes - not too bad.And so, what can I say... this year is infinitely better than last year, and we are so grateful to be back home with little Claudia in our arms.

Thanks to Grandmom and Grandpa, Grandma and Buckah, and all of our family members that made this experience such a wonderful one!