Oh Happy Day!!!

Oh Happy Day!!! was in the subject line of a recent email I sent about a story that began to unfold THE DAY AFTER my last post. As you could read, if you so chose, my last post was about the new phase we were entering in our adoption adventure, the waiting phase. And oh, the essays that could have followed, flowing from hearts wracked in anguish over the extent of our wait. Months from now, Ben and I would be surely writing about the trials in learning yet again from the work God gives us throughout our lives- at times- by making us (...big sigh...) wait some more.

However, in God's mercy and kindness, those posts were not to be. For, at the very time I was writing, an email was being formulated to us full of information and two photos about a little boy in Ethiopia, two years old, who needed a family. The America world staff there found this little guy to be "ready" for this next step in his journey, and then they went down the list of families who were waiting and also "ready" for this next step in their journey. They passed by many families who wanted baby girls or a few wanting infant boys or sibling groups, and there was no one left ahead of us on Wednesday, September 23, who was open to a little two year old boy. And someone put our names together for the very first time. Well, not the very first time. Before the creation of the world, God ordained that our names would be brought together and that we would be one family.

And so, on that afternoon of the 23rd, I got "the call," the call that everyone dreams about. And I would be lying to not include this next part of the story. I'm a big fan of the whole truth, so here it is. I was really conflicted upon getting the Referral Call for one little boy. I had had my heart set on siblings, deep down, for awhile, and both Ben and I were open to siblings and that was in our paperwork. So, I had convinced myself that we would likely get a referral for siblings, 0-48 months, one boy and then either a boy or girl. So, I told our family coordinator what I was thinking and I told her I wanted to call Ben at work and then she allowed us to let her know the next morning if we actually wanted to receive this referral and open it up at all. If we knew we only wanted siblings, we would get off the list for a single boy. Well, I mentioned "hearts wracked in anguish" above, and we got a brief taste of that on that night. I won't relay the whole discussion, but when we finally went to bed that night, we were weary and decided we probably should not take the referral if either one of us (me) was having any doubts. And I felt horrible, because of course I wanted this boy. I just wondered, wouldn't it be better to take two if we were willing and able. But there were many reasons why one would be a better choice as well. One thing Ben said struck deeply that night. He said that this was not necessarily the end of the road for us- or the last chapter- regarding adopted children. (I had been thinking up to this point, 'oh yes it is!') If God let us know in the future that he wanted us to have another Ethiopian (or other) sibling for our guy, well, then, we could do that, if God would provide the way. After all, the process for us has gone so well, and so quickly!...if, that is, we would accept this referral now. It would be seven months from start to Referral. If we travel in November, voila!, nine months! :D

On a typical work day Ben leaves the house at about 6:40-6:45 to start at 7:00. Well, I had to call Nicole (our coordinator) right away, and we still had not really come to a decision. On the list in front of us there were a few families in line for siblings. One had been on there, for the same age range as we were requesting, from the time they sent their dossier in in January. That made me think about the possibility of having to wait nine or more months more to get a referral. What if this was just God saying, "This is the boy I have for you. I brought him directly to you. Don't turn him away. I'll handle the future." So, when I verbalized this, Ben immediately said, "Yes! I think he's the one for us. I think this is it." And we both started crying. I called Nicole and had to leave a message. She called back a bit later and I told her we decided we wanted to receive this referral and she sent the email. Ben left for work at about 7:20 before she called back, so the kids were getting up now and ready for school as we told them the news. "They have a little brother for us!"

The email came into our box by 7:30 (America World is in McLean, VA, outside of DC, and Nicole went in early that morning, 8am their time) and though Ben hadn't received it at work yet, he wanted the kids to be able to see the photos before Whitton and Sylvia went to school. (He got the email later and opened it all up at about 9:00 that morning.) But we were on the phone with him when we opened it up. Whitton held the phone and I videoed (?) while Whitton opened it up. We can't post that video yet, but will someday when he is officially ours. We actually can't post any other info about him yet, so you'll just have to wait. Sorry. The kids told Ben his name and what this little boy, their new brother, looked like. Really short black hair. Dark brown eyes. Red shirt. And he's smiling. :) Yay, he's smiling.

Enough for now. So, they are calling our official RR (Rec'd Refferal) Day 9/23/09, but we didn't open it up and see our boy's face until Thursday, 9/24/09. This is less than a month after our dossier was sent from the US, 20 days after it arrived in Ethiopia. God gets the glory for this, my friends. Only He could do this. We're so very thankful for how he's done this in His time, which happened to be very quickly this time. We always seem to notice and talk about how God's timing isn't what we wish it was when he chooses to take a slower route than what we'd like. Well, we'd better be quick to praise him when he does something so fast that it's beyond all we could ask or imagine. And so we do. From here, we await a court date at which our case will be presented without us there. We anticipate that this could be scheduled for a date within a few weeks from now. Not everyone "passes" in court the first time through, depending on if all your paperwork ducks are in a row. Generally, families travel about 2 weeks after passing court. But, something we learned living overseas and appears to be true in international adoption is that wild turns in the road are fairly commonplace. So, we'll count on some of those, so as not to despair when things don't go exactly as planned. We can only give it all to Jesus, knowing that he will handle each situation perfectly.

Love you all! Thanks for your love and support in this. It's Friday afternoon here. Sylvia has spent her third day at home this week with a fever, but is feeling well now. Uncle Andy is coming to babysit tonight so Ben and I can go out to dinner. Yay! for Uncle Andy. We're actually going to venture out now to get a couple movies for the kids for tonight. Ok, more later!