We Got Our First REFERRAL!!!!

Finally! We have been waiting and waiting and waiting some more! I can't believe that yesterday, February 25th, our life was forever changed!  After 7 months, 2 weeks and 3 days we have a REFERRAL!!!

And now for a play by play of my day (even minute by minute).

I got a text from Michelle saying that her and Brian were headed to the hospital in Portland to see Lisa, who is one of our high schoolers who has cancer. They swung by the office to pick me up and we had a great visit with Lisa. She is an amazing girl. She spoke at DYC last weekend for part of our Saturday morning session and got crazy applause from everyone and then we all gathered around her to pray, much like the way they prayed around us Sunday morning. You can read more about that here if you missed that post.

When I woke up Friday morning I was thinking through the day and wondering if we would get our call. I knew I had a premarital counseling appointment with Eric and Chrystal at 2 and thought, "If we get our call today I may have to reschedule that appointment." As we were headed back from the hospital I suggested we go eat at Moe's and Chele, Brian's wife, was going to meet us there.

We were on I-5 and crossing I-205 when all of a sudden my phone rings. Not just any normal ring, but my special ringtone! (MercyMe's Won't You Be My Love) AND it said Dove International Adoptions on my screen!!! I know my face had a crazy look of shock that Michelle saw in her rearview mirror. I answered and said hello. It was Tami. She put me on hold to conference in Jeanne-Ann. As she did this I pulled out my Flip cam that I have been keeping in my jacket pocket for the last 2 months and started recording. I wanted to capture every moment. I have been practicing this moment for months in my mind. It was out so fast that I think I actually beat Brian to the punch of recording as he had pulled out his iPhone to record it too.

Screen capture from my phone. BTW, Babe and Jeanne-Ann are both the same person. Just in case you were wondering.

The video is pretty uneventful as I just sat in shock and listened to what was happening and tears started coming.  We told Tami we didn't want to know anything except if it was a boy or a girl. The rest we would wait to find out together with our kids when we all got home. Michelle pulled up to the office and her and Brian  went in to "run interference" as I grabbed my laptop and shut things down in my office. I was not ready to tell anyone until we had all seen the pictures together as a family. I ran out to my car and just said "see ya" to Mike and Lisa.

I am not going to lie, I may have broken some laws on the way home. Except for a few times when the "fast lane" was only doing 62 in a 65!!! Don't these people realize I had a small window to get home? When they called Jeanne-Ann, she had just finished up with her morning Kindergarteners and had about an hour break until her afternoon Kindergarten class would show up. I would get less than 30 minutes with my family until school was done. I had to get home fast. (younger readers, please don't do as I did. Obey the law. Don't speed.) After crossing over a limit that may have had an 8 and a 5 in it I finally made it home. :)

Jeanne-Ann had picked up Kynzi and Karston from school and they were home waiting for me.  We hugged and then opened up the computer to see the email with the pictures and information. Kynzi and Karston videoed us as we opened up the email and then we videoed them as they looked. There, right in front of our very own eyes was our beautiful baby BOY! I am going to have another son!!! He is amazing! I can't even believe it. He was born October 4th, 2010 and is almost 5 months old now.

Jeanne-Ann and I have already laughed at ourselves because when we got the call, I was crying and she did not shed a tear. Not that she is not overjoyed, we just respond differently to things. The really funny part is that as we were videoing Kynzi and Karston it is clear what cloth they are cut from. Kynzi is me...all the way. Karston is Jeanne-Ann...all the way. That is clear from the video as you will see. Karston thought it was cool, Kynzi couldn't hardly breathe in between her sobs of sheer joy.

After we looked at the 2 pictures of our son (we can not share pictures until we have legal custody, so it will be quite a while for that. Sorry. =) We called all the Grandparents. Three phones, all on speaker, and 4 Grandparents on the line ready to hear the news. There was a lot of screaming and tears of joy. At one point I said, "OK, all grandparents have to be quiet. No questions until we are all done because you are all talking at the same time and you are all getting confused." It was actually quite humorous. So we told them all the information about their newest grandson, and then emailed  pictures to them. Our son, like Kynzi and Karston, are quite fortunate to have loving Grandparents like this. Thank You Jesus for them all!

After everyone was home from school, we needed to get a hold of the rest of the family members so we could start getting to the point of making this all public. I know how hard it can be to hold onto exciting news, even if it isn't directly your own news. We talked to Jeanne-Ann's siblings in North Carolina and Guatemala and to my siblings in New York and Ethiopia. We called Nina and Wes on their Ethiopian cell phone (they are over there with their twins, Alex and Eliana, waiting to bring them home). They got on Skype and we video chatted with them to share the news. Then they ran up to get Josh and Bex and Mercy on the camera so we could share with them. What a fun moment that was!! It is crazy that we live in a time where I can get on my laptop and SEE them and TALK to them in ETHIstinkinOPIA!!! Sooo fun to share this with great friends and family and especially with them actually being there. We are hoping that they will be able to go visit our son soon!

Then off to Outback! We had a celebration meal with a group of our dearest friends. It was amazing to sit in a restaurant and feel like the 15 of us were the only ones there. Even though it was packed, it felt very intimate. We laughed, we cried, we ate, we thanked Jesus. It was so good. God is good.

So there you have it. I am blogged out...my fingers are tired of typing. I'm tapping out for this post. I will update you when we get our next call. I will post the videos later. I need to go do some running/training with Karston and I want to get this post out right away.

You might be wondering about our 2nd baby...we are too.  Hopefully we will hear soon.

We will share our little boy's name in a later blog post.

It was quite a day. We are thankful. We are overjoyed. We are ready for our adventure to begin...or continue...