The Quote

So...about the quote.  You know, the quote.  You've surely noticed it by now.  I have it plastered on just about everything related to our adoption journey.  You've seen it on our adoption website, and you've seen it here, and if it looks familiar to you, it's probably because you're familiar with Brian Andreas and/or Storypeople so you've also probably seen it here. 

I love this quote.  It is the perfect representation of what our vision of our family looks like.  It's also a representation of the families that we've come from.   We love to laugh - loud, and from the belly.  And we love to share this laughter with the people we love.  In fact, it might be said that it's an expression of love - this laughter, and how we share it.  We love noisy family gatherings with 20 people talking all at once as the volume level rises to a dull roar.  I remember falling asleep as a child, to the sound of my family playing cards, laughing and yelling.  To this day, it's still one of my favorite sounds to fall asleep to (I actually can't sleep in a silent room).  This quote is so us.

I've been holding on to this quote for years.  I don't remember exactly when I first saw it, but I think may have been before I even met Todd.  I wrote it down on a little blue post-it note at work.  The little note under that says "Baby Room".  This quote has been earmarked for something like this for a long time.  The post-it note has survived about 3 office moves and currently lives in a pile of clutter on my desk (with the smiley face ring, the salt, and the pile of Keith Urban concert pictures).  I couldn't have known when I found it, how much it would come to mean to us, or how we would wind up using it.  In that respect, I feel a little bit like it found me - and then waited patiently for us to get to this point.  In any case, we're finally putting it to work for us and it is more relevant and meaningful to us now than ever before.