No More Numbers....In Other Words, The Stork Has Landed =)

Just wanted to let everyone know that we received "The Call" on Tuesday afternoon and of course it was just as I was on my way out the door to go to an appointment!  It's so true that you only hear the first few words of the phone conversation and then you lose your ability to think!  So much was running through my mind as I was hearing only bits and pieces of what the director of our agency had to say.  She started the conversation off by saying "I have a little girl that I'd like to talk to you about, but first I need to tell you two things."  "One, is that I realize that she is out of your age range just a little bit, and two, if you really think that you would like to continue to wait for a baby, I wouldn't open her file because she is precious!"

We were very much surprised that we were offered this little one because we had just recently updated our homestudy and also updated what our official request would be.  We are actually approved for 2 children up to age 4 but we specified that at least one child was to be a girl under 2, preferably under 12 months.  It could have only been God guiding the director of our agency to call us about a 2 1/2 year old girl! She knew that we may not want to accept a referral for an "older" child so she let us know that they recently had babies come in to care and it wouldn't be long at all before they would be ready to refer. The warning not to look at T's file if I was sure that we wanted to continue to wait for a baby was totally accurate....the "precious factor" is definitely running through her veins!  =)

I promised Todd that when we got "The Call" I would wait until he got home from work so we could open the file together.  Can I just say it was a long 4 hours?!!!  So many things went through my mind as I tried to prepare myself.  I really felt like we were supposed to be adding a baby to our family and a 2 1/2 year old was a bit far off from what we had all been expecting!  I had a speech all prepared for Todd about how I really believed that we should stick with a baby because that is what we had decided on when we were in our "sane minds" at the beginning of our process. ;)  He listened and then calmly told me not to open the file, if that's the way I felt.

"WHAT!!" I said.  "Are you kidding me?"  "I can't NOT open it!!!"  =(

So we all stood there looking at each other.  Me looking at him, him looking at me, me looking at the kids, them all looking at us just waiting for the decision to be made. Finally I couldn't take it anymore so I dove for the computer and clicked on the email from our agency.  Everyone else jumped after me and we all crowded around the computer.  We took one look and agreed.....precious for sure.  We read over her file and then we all just looked at each other like...."whadda we do now?"

I'm pretty sure that everyone else was convinced but they were all waiting for me to make the decision. I went into "deliberation mode" with myself, and for what seemed like forever, struggled over the pros and cons......bottles and diapers vs feeding herself and potty trained......waking through the night vs sleeping all night.....and so on.  I'm not quite sure why I was holding so tightly to "the baby plan" that my mind had fabricated but I finally was able to look at things logically and let go of what I felt I wanted, so that I could let God speak to my heart.  As soon as I let go, the love for T started flowing in!  She won me over and I can't even imagine adding a baby to our family now.  She is like the missing puzzle piece.....and she fits perfectly!

We are overjoyed to be in the "nesting stage" where we will begin to prepare a place for "T" here in our home and also begin to make plans for our travel to Ethiopia to meet her!

All I have to say is......"Let the shopping commence!!"   =)   Oh, I have longed for this day!

We can't post a picture of her until she is legally ours but if you ever run into me anywhere, you better believe that I will have a picture with me....and before you can even ask to see it I will already have it out  showing you!  =)

Have a great weekend....I know we will!