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Thump. Thump. Thump.

Have you ever had one of those moments in your life when you're stuck somewhere between sleep and awake? One of those moments when you're... when you're like stuck in a place where's there no way for your brain to register whether or not that sound you just heard was a sound you really just heard, or if it was more of a simple fragment of some soon-to-be forgotten dream sound. Nothing to worry about at all.

Like that moment when you're just waking up, but you're not quite there yet... so nothing's really real.

That place?

Wham. Wham. Wham.

And then there's that. A definitely real sound that jolts you from your peaceful slumber and let's you know that it's time to get back to life.

"Ouch. Shit!"

I smacked my skull on the edge of the bedside table at the sound I now knew to be really real. I shook my head harshly a few times in the hopes of clearing away the leftover remnants of any fast-fading dreams... or at the very least, the fog of the previous night's one-too-many tequila shots.

Ick. I knew I shouldn't have skipped the after party.

I sat up, finally gathering my bearings, and glanced around the room. A quick inventory of my surroundings, brought me the comfort of knowing I'd made it back to my own hotel room - as evidenced by the familiar luggage on the desk across the room and the past week's worth of dirty laundry still piled up and collecting dust in the corner of the room. And hey! I'd somehow even managed to change into a clean pair of shorts and a t-shirt... and considering I wasn't asleep on the bathroom floor, or worse - with my head in the toilet - score a few more for me. I mean, I could obviously have done a lot worse considering it was my first night of partying in a long, long time.

I laid back down on my pillow, chuckling as I thought to myself, how once upon a time in my life, not so long ago, waking up alone in a hotel room after a hot party would have been looked upon as an ultimate failure... a bum deal. A tragedy of epic proportions. And certainly something the other guys (at least half the other guys) would have made fun of me for, and vice versa. But now... now it just made me feel like a successful husband, and a decent guy. Like all of the other guys. And that was certainly nothing to be ashamed of.

Thump. Thud.

Shit.

Somehow in all the self inventory I'd been taking, I'd completely lost track of the fact that something had woken me up in the first place. I often do that you know... lose my train of thought... like now, where was I?

I stumbled out of bed and across the room, chancing one quick glance at myself in the mirror as I dodged by.

Woof.

Now I remembered why I didn't party anymore. I looked like hell. Death warmed over once or twice. Not that it mattered though, it couldn't possibly be anyone important knocking on the door at this time of the morning anyway. One of the guys most likely, checking to make sure I'd made it through the night. We were good for each other like that.

"Who is it?" I called as I approached the door, cursing the fact that this expensive hotel had overlooked the simple courtesy of a damned peephole. I mean, really? I just had to hope whoever the crazed madman on the other side was, at least he'd be honest enough to let me know his intentions before he beat the door down to kill me.

"Nick?" a familiar voice called back, "is that you?"

I couldn't get the door opened fast enough after hearing that voice. Wondering what in the world she was doing there... how she got there, and why? She was supposed to be back in Tennessee spending time with friends and family... not here in California... so it must be important...

And damn all these friggin' locks on these damn hotel doors!

As I slipped the last chain out of it's lock and flung the door back in a hurry, I stopped in my tracks. There was my wife, standing there before me, tears streaming down her cheeks as she reached forward and fell into my arms, hugging me tightly as she cried.

"Oh God baby, what's wrong?" I asked, pulling here inside and hugging her tighter still... worried to death wondering what could've happened over the past 24 hours since I'd last talked to her. "Are you okay? What happened?"

And it was then, as I held her in my arms and my heart raced about a thousand beats a minute, that she leaned up and kissed me, smiling brightly through her tears... the biggest smile I have ever seen on her face. A happy smile. A genuine smile. A smile that let me know her tears were tears of joy.

"What... what?" I asked, not daring to smile back just yet. Scared that if I did, her smile would fade into tears once more. Scared that if I did, what I'd thought had been a smile would turn out to be a simple mirage, washed away and replaced by some horrible heartache. God knows we'd seen enough of that in our marriage.

"She's ours Nick..." she whispered, finally letting go as she grabbed her backpack from the floor beside her and produced a stack of papers a mile high. A stack of papers I recognized well from months of hard work and frustration. On top of the stack of papers laid a photo revealing the sweet face of the beautiful little girl we'd fallen in love with only months before. She shoved the stack into my hands and smiled once more as the tears started falling again. "... she's so totally ours!"

I gasped, fighting back my own tears now as I ran my fingers over the photo. "Don't lie," I whispered back and she laced her arms around my waist and pulled me closer, "you're serious? Really serious?"

"Totally, really, honestly, one hundred percent, dead serious." she smiled again and the tears fell faster for the both of us. "Our agency called last night and I caught the first place I could catch. Our paperwork has been submitted, our homestudies are complete and as soon as the review and approve our Dossier... we get a travel date!"

Yeah... so really though... I hadn't understood a single word she'd just said. In fact, I'd had trouble understanding just about everything having to do with the adoption process from day one when we decided to embark on this crazy journey, but I swear that's why I met my wife. Because by God she knew and understood it all! All I knew was what was most important, and the one thing I understood completely were the words, "she's ours" and that we would have a travel date... and that a travel date would mean that we would get to meet our daughter... and that we would get to bring her home. And that... was the most amazingly awesome news ever.

I kissed my wife and pulled her closer, "This is incredible!" I breathed the words into her ear, longing to have her close to me... missing her touch as only a husband in love with his wife could. I pulled her into the bed so that we could just lay there together, side by side like we always did when I was home and we were together. "Do they know how long it will take from here?" I asked.

I watched as her smiled widened and I guessed the news was good before she even told me. "They said we could have our little girl in our arms as early as next month."

And in that moment, I knew exactly the feeling my wife had had when I'd opened the door and her eyes were streaming with tears. I felt my own eyes stinging as tears pooled within them and trickled down my cheeks. For so long I'd felt like I'd never cry tears of joy again... but here they were. I wanted to tell the whole world... I wanted to share this joy. It felt like we'd been waiting an eternity for these moments... longer even than since we'd decided to adopt. And so now, it seemed nearly impossible to believe we'd be reaching the end of this thing so soon.

I lifted the photo from the paper and stared into the beautiful, brown, almond-shaped eyes of the little girl who would soon become our own. Our own.

What an amazing feeling.

"Do you think we should tell everyone yet?" I asked as I surveyed the newest picture of our angel, taking in all of her beautifully distinctive features, knowing that to some they would stand out as unique and confusing. "I mean... do you think we should warn people beforehand?"

I watched as my wife turned towards me and smiled, "Does it really matter?" she asked as she slid the picture from my fingers and gazed at it herself... "all that matters is that we will love her unconditionally and forever. All that matters is that she is so beautiful to us."

I nodded and she continued... "and besides... we've seen their hearts open up with love before. We'll see it again... I just know."

I couldn't help but smile, because she was right. This little girl was going to be so, so loved.