I'm sorry I have not done a good job of keeping the
blog updated the last couple months. The truth is I was a little discouraged
with how slow the process was moving. Our last post was in May when our number
was 24. In June, our number moved two spots putting us at 22. The list had
moved so slowly for the last couple months, I began to wonder if we would ever
get a referral.
On July 1st we got a new number...15! We
were so excited. I was so relieved to finally be out of the twenties. We were
excited to tell our families our new number because we had jumped so
much.
This summer has allowed us to travel some to see
family and friends. July 7-11 we were
able to attend a Regional Campus Ministers Meeting in Denton, TX. We have
family that lives in the Dallas area and this meeting allowed us to spend some
time with them. This meeting also
allowed us to see friends who serve in collegiate ministry who can relate to what
we face on a daily basis.
On the 8th, Matt was in meetings and I spent time with a
friend of ours who has also been through the adoption process with our agency.
I was able to ask her several questions about their process, talk through what
we are experiencing, and catch up with each other in general. It was really good
to spend that time with her.
On the 9th, Matt left for the meeting while
I chose to stay with my family running errands and just hanging out. Around
4:30pm my voicemail made a ringing sound letting me know I had a voicemail but
my phone never rang. I had a voicemail from Jen at our agency asking me to call
her back and that she had exciting news. Immediately I could not breathe but I
didn't want to get too excited. So I called her back and she said, "We
have a referral for you!" I think I said "Are you serious?" and
then I started crying and not the pretty I'm so happy cry, like I cried the
ugly, I can't breathe cry. I had to take a moment and pull myself together. Jen
and I got on conference call with our country coordinator, Lesley, and she gave
me the details...a 5 month old, boy. When I got off the phone, all I could
think about was getting to Matt or getting him to me.
Matt was in meetings at the conference. I knew I
needed to call him and get him to me. I knew that just asking him to leave the
conference and come eat dinner with me would not work. I stared the
conversation just asking him to come home and eat dinner with me and the family
but he wanted to know why and if something was wrong, so I just blurted out,
"WE GOT A REFERRAL!!" and then I instructed him to not drive like a
maniac. While Matt was on his way, my family and I tried to think of several
creative ways of how to tell Matt it was a boy. The only thing I could think of
to do was to make a sign that said, "It's a boy!" I saw Matt pull
into the driveway so I stepped outside and held the sign so when he ran up he
saw it. We had a few moments to ourselves celebrating and crying. Then we
went inside, celebrated with family, went through all the information together,
and began making phone calls.
We cannot explain the excitement we are
experiencing and feeling. We would like to thank all of you for your constant
encouragement and prayers. We would ask
that you continue to pray for our baby boy and us as we wait to hear from the Ethiopian
government about a court date. We will
keep you posted on when we receive our first court date. God has been so good
to us and only He could have orchestrated all the events to take place the way
that they did! We thank God for bringing us a referral and we pray that he will
continue to work out all the details of our adoption story.
Thank you again!
