Getting the call

Here is some more information about when we got the call from our agency about the referral! There are a lot of details (probably boring for you) but I don't want to forget it!

The phone rang a little after 9am on Thursday, September 10th. I thought it was a little funny because September 10th is my half birthday. We don't get many calls on our home phone and even though we weren't expecting a referral for a while, every time the phone rang, I would sort of hope it was it.

I've only spoken to our case worker once, so I didn't recognize her voice. But when she asked for Damien or Renee, I thought maybe it was her. Then when she said who she was I actually sort of panicked. I sort of worried that if she was calling this soon after sending our dossier to Korea that maybe something was wrong. Of course, this all was going through my mind in a split second. The she said, "We have a referral for you!"

The best part was that Damien was just about to walk out of the door to go to work. It told him it was Sepnce-Chapin and that they had a referral for us. He had a shocked look on his face and I told him to get on the other line so he could listen in. It's so nice that he was able to hear it first hand!

So, she starts telling us the baby's name, birth date, etc. and all I could think was that I really wanted her to tell us what her special need was. On the special needs paperwork we had to complete months ago, we indicated that we would consider a whole lot of needs. However, in many cases we would only be open to certain severity. For example, we said we would consider Limb Difference. However, we would have accepted a missing hand, but not a missing leg. Basically, we wanted to make sure that whatever need we accepted would be something that could be handled if we were living overseas. I always knew it would be devastating to get a referral and not be able to accept it.

So finally, she gets to "and she seems to have a partial ear deformity." Now, after talking to the doctor we know that it is quite a bit more extreme than just that. But, I just remember saying, "That's it? An ear deformity?"

I was also shocked how young she is. We were open to a child up to two years. I figured we would most likely be referred a child over a year because of that. Secondly, children can't be available for International adoption until he/she is 5 months old. This gives them plenty of time to get adopted domestically. She isn't even 5 months old yet. Maybe there are exceptions for kids with special needs...or maybe she is just close enough.

We asked a few questions, but I was in shock. I had a hard time remembering half of the conversation or thinking of good questions. Later that day, I really wished I remembered more of the details of the conversation. For example, I couldn't remember if she said her birthday was April 16th or 19th.

So, at the end of the conversation she told us that she would be sending us the packet of information (Fed Ex overnight) and that we would receive it by the next day (Friday) before 3pm. That was a little bit of a bummer. Some agencies have the info in an email. I guess SWS only sends it paper.

The rest of the day was a lot of fun calling family and letting them know we had a referral. When the call came we were walking out the door go to the Zoo with my playgroup so it was fun to also tell them all of the details. We've been praying together about it for a year. I just couldn't wait until we got the packet! We called the international adoption doctor and gave them a heads-up that we would be sending them the info as soon as we got it. I already love how responsive this doctor is!

They agency sent us a tracking number for the package. On Friday morning we saw that it had been put on the truck at 7:45am. Our mail gets delivered to Damien's office, so he let the secretary know we were waiting for it. Around 11am she rushes over to him and gives him a FedEx package!

So, Damien rushed home (he walks so it's about 5min). I always wanted to video or at least take a picture of us opening our referral information. We've been going through this process for a year (and planning it for much longer) so I've had a lot of time to think about it. :-) But as soon as he walked in I didn't even remember those "plans" and just ripped into the package. I just wanted to see what she looked like. I pulled out the pictures and the first thing I thought was how adorable she was. Now, I may be biased. I don't know. But I knew it was very possible that we might see the picture and not think she was the most adorable thing we'd ever seen. I would have been totally ok with this. But I seriously did think she was so cute.

We couldn't believe how many pictures there were. There are about 20. Pictures of her in the little chair, pictures of her on her tummy pushing up, holding her head, being held by her foster mother, pictures of any little birthmark or vaccine scar. And a couple of her ear. Amazing!

There were nine pages of information. Where she was born, some biological parent info (which we will share with her only and she can decide who she would like to share this information with in the future), orphanage and foster parent info, medical and developmental info. Even a hearing test.

All we wanted to do was tell everyone and share her picture! But the agency said we couldn't show people her picture until we officially accepted her. And secondly, we wanted to get the doctor's report. We had done a lot of research on her medical info, but we knew the doctor could still find something that we didn't notice. We knew that the there was a possibility (even if it was very small) that we wouldn't be able to accept.

It was hard to wait all weekend to talk to the doctor. I think I dreamed about it every night. We spoke to the doctor today and it went well. With all of the research we did this weekend, the doctor didn't really tell us too much that we didn't already know.

Since we don't live around family, it was really special that Damien's mom was visiting this week when we got the referral. Normally we don't get to share these special moments with extended family. I even told Damien a few weeks ago that it would be so cool if we got one this week while Mimie was here. He told me I was crazy and that it was way too soon to get one. :-) I tried not to think about it and on Wednesday I even thought to myself, "I guess we AREN'T going to get one while Mimie is here." And it happened the next morning. :-)

Here is a another picture just for fun. :-)