Adoption UPDATE!!

As I'm sitting down to type this I have the "Announcement Song" from my camp days stuck in my head. As a staff we sang it every morning during breakfast when we had morning announcements about the day. Such a fun (and random) memory.

We do have a BIG announcement though so maybe that song is actually appropriate right now....

Awhile back my husband mentioned kids our attorney was hoping to refer to us. Long story short (very short) that didn't work out. There are many details but none that can or will be shared in a public forum. Suffice it to say we are confident God allowed us to be in the waiting season that long for a reason.

Now, for the BIG news.....(drumroll please!)

We have not one but TWO referrals! 

Here's the story:

In early March a few people from our agency were in country visiting kids, orphanages and foster homes. At this time we were so, SO hopeful we would see the first pictures of the kids we were originally hoping to be referred. We even sent a care package for them. Anyway, one of the many orphanages they visited had several kids waiting and available for adoption. I saw the pictures and one little kiddo totally grabbed my heart right away but I kept pushing that back telling myself 'No, we are planning to adopt these other two kids'. I showed the picture to my husband who was thinking the same thing as me. In the back of my head I was trying to rationalize the cost and craziness of bringing THREE kids into our family. It didn't take long for that to get squashed.

Fast forward a couple weeks and I had continued to look at the picture every.single.day. All the while waiting and hoping to hear that our other case was ready to move forward. I even requested MORE pictures from our agency. Then the crazy thoughts of three kids really got going - haha.

In the end our first case was not able to move forward. Both Mike and I were 100% ready to move forward and say YES to this precious little BOY! Yes, folks, Elliot will finally have a brother. E is around 3 years old and everyone who has met him tells us he is such a joy and so much fun. I cannot wait!

So, that was referral #1. The referral day I had read about and thought about so much for over a year ended up being nothing like I thought it would! We had not seen ourselves adopting an "older" child which means we have paperwork to update but, now that we've said yes I can not imagine not doing this. Does that make sense?

So, we had our first referral. We were over the moon excited. Now, the waiting for referral #2 started. I thought I had been a compulsive e-mail checker before but nothing compared to the way I was in the week between Referral #1 & Referral #2.

Monday (4/8) I had a random burst of motivation to really clean my one of my kid's rooms. Since this seldom happens I decided I better take advantage of it. I had Pandora turned on on my phone & plugged into our speakers we have in the kitchen. The kids love to dance & I figured it would keep them busy. So, I missed two phone calls from our agency. When I finally emerged from the now immaculate cleaner room and saw that I immediately called back. Most of our communication is through email so I figured it had to be BIG if I was getting called twice!

Sure enough, Referral #2 was waiting for us in our inbox. I had so many emotions running through me but all I could do was cry. And it was the ugly cry - overwhelming excitement, love, anxiety, etc.

I loaded all the girls up and picked Mike up at work so we could see this picture together for the first time.

We opened up the email and waited very impatiently while the photo loaded. Our little GIRL is absolutely precious! *cue more tears from me* She is 5 DAYS old in her picture. We never expected a referral for a baby THAT little. Little M has a full head of hair I'm going to need to learn how to style!

It has been an emotional roller coaster the past two weeks. We are buckled up and ready for the next steps! So, ready for this process to move along and already so excited and anxious to bring these precious kids into our family. Hopefully this means many more exciting update posts to come on this blog SOON!!