Referral Day

2 years ago today, I laid eyes on my baby for the very first time. What an incredible moment that was! I so wish I could describe in words the joy of that day. D and I had spent 2 years trying to find the answers to so many questions... Where was our son? How would we find him? When would we hear news of him? Was our son being cared for? What would he look like? How old was he? What if we didn't recognize him? ... All of these questions were answered in a fleeting moment 2 years ago on this day. One moment, I did not know the answers to any of the questions, and the next moment, I knew all that mattered was that I had just seen my son for the very first time and that I finally knew where I needed to go to get him! I could not get on that plane fast enough!

Caleb Dmitriy, I am so thankful God chose us to be your Mama and Papa... out of all the parents He could have chosen for you! We will always cherish the miraculous way in which God brought us together. You are such a blessing to us!

One Year Ago

Last year on Thanksgiving, I was praying for news of our son. It was so hard to know he was out there somewhere, but to not know any other information about him... and then on November 30th, 2007 at 3:55 PM, we got a phone call that changed everything! We found out that our son was 19 months old and he was in Siberia! I cannot describe in words what that was like... I can only say there was so much joy in that moment! Suddenly, the son I had known only in my heart for 2 years was right there in front of me! When we went to the computer to pull up his pictures, this is what we saw...

Sing to God, sing praise to his name,

extol him who rides on the clouds-

his name is the Lord-

and rejoice before him.

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,

is God in his holy dwelling.

God sets the lonely in families...

Psalm 68:4-6

Referral! Praise God

IT HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We got a call from our agency Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 3:54 PM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A little boy.....SO beautiful!
The call went like this...

D: Hello?
FC: Hey D, how are you? Is L there? Can she get on the phone too?

D and I are both making freak-out faces at one another now!

D: Uhhh...sure!

I go to the kitchen while wildly motioning to my husband to follow me. I can hardly breathe. I turn on the speakerphone and tell him to hang up.
We cannot get on two seperate phones b/c I left our other one out in the rain several months ago and it does not work.
For a moment I think we could call her back on our cell phones, but NO WAY am I letting her go without the news right then!

FC: I have your referral! A little boy!
D and L: Seriously?!?!?! Oh, that is so awesome!

At this point, I don't remember the exact order of the rest. I do know I started to cry and I could see tears welling up in D's eyes. It was a an amazing and very BIG moment. Until...
Our son, A, yells, "Mom, can I flush our toilet? My sister peed!"
Remember, our FC can hear this, as we are on speakerphone : )
The main waterline in our town had been cut earlier that day and we had just explained to the kids right before THE CALL that we had no water.

Our FC was laughing, so we had to, in turn, explain the water issue to her. She laughs again and then tells us the rest of what we needed to know about our baby. I am so stunned by her initial news that I miss much of what she is telling us.

Next, she asked us to go to the computer, so we could see his pictures.

FC: Can you get to a computer?
D: Sure!

We run to my son's room and attempt to check our E-mail for the pictures. We cannot breathe! The anticipation is killing us!
We are not successful...just red X's where the pictures should be.
We ask our FC to send them to another of our E-mail addresses. Again, not successful.
Uugghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Could this have anything to do with the fact that we were trying to read some big files on a 7 year-old computer that has essentially no ability to do anything of value?
As a matter of fact, it could!
After 10 excrutiating minutes of STILL not seeing my son's picture, we realize we may not be able to.
We have to explain that our real computer is at the "computer doctor" b/c our son put a magnet on the mousepad last week and scrambled the hard drive (ironic, b/c we bought that computer just so we could do all things related to this adoption!).
Our FC laughs again...

We try my husband's E-mail address at work. Finally, we see our son's precious smile!
They say the third time is a charm, right?

Praise GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!