Referral Day!

I really want to type up our "referral day" so that I don't forget and so that I can share it with Eliana when she is older. Even though she isn't home yet, it is the day that we finally saw the face of the little girl that we had been praying about for so long. I am still in shock!

Let me back up a little though. The month of May has been a hard month of waiting for me. I think it's like when you are pregnant and just want to meet your baby. But I just didn't know AT ALL when that was going to happen. We were #9 on the waiting list and there were quite a few people "on hold" ahead of us. So we knew we were closer than 9. But things had been going so slow the last few months that we were preparing ourselves to not hear anything until June or July. The thought of August was when I stopped thinking. ;)

On Thursday, the day before our referral, I was putting away cold weather clothes and switching to spring/summer (finally!). That task was long and boring and I just kept thinking about our little girl and wondering what she was doing and really just longing to know more about her and to see her face. I had about 4 loads of laundry ahead of me and in a desperate moment I shot an email to our adoption agency. I asked Lesley if there were any kids' paperwork getting ready that she knew of (just for some hope!) and that if there weren't, that she could feel free to tell me to get back to doing laundry! :) She assured me that there were no kids that she knew of and to get back to my laundry. :) I laughed....I totally just needed her to tell me not to hold my breath. But I did tell her to feel free to interrupt me doing laundry at any time. ;)

That night I told Dan that I would love if when you are in the "Top 10" or even "Top 20" of the waiting process, they would send you a "Top of The Morning" email each morning that simply says, "Good Morning. Today is NOT your day."   That way, I could read it when I woke up, and go about my day without jumping every time my phone rang. :)

Well, it was now Friday, May 24th. Dan and I (and the kids) ran to Target that morning to get a few things and then came home to get some work done around the house. I knew that my case worker, Jennifer, was going to be doing her monthly phone call that afternoon to check in, but in the back of my mind I was just really hoping that she would tell us about a child. At some point, I looked at Dan and said, "Hey! I never got a "Top of the Morning" email today. Maybe today is our day?! ;) " Totally joking, but still hoping.

We were going to a film screening that night for the documentary, "STUCK" and I realized that I didn't have butter to make brownies. I ran to ShopRite and was driving home, ready to call Jennifer myself. For some reason, I just needed my  "Top of the Morning" email from her that day.  It was close to 3:00 and torture that she hadn't called yet to check in. :) I just needed her tell me to wait longer!!

A few minutes after getting in from the store, I walked into the kitchen and Dan was handing me my ringing cell phone. I didn't even hear it ringing. I also didn't recognize the phone number, but assumed it was Jennifer. (Mind you, I have both Jennifer and Lesley's phone numbers in my phone). I was also aware that Jennifer would do my monthly calls, but Lesley makes the referral calls. I answered the phone and heard, " Hi Lauren, this is Lesley." MY HEART SKIPPED!  I hope that I said hi back. Not really sure. Then she said " Are you doing laundry right now? ;)"  I wanted to scream!! :) But I tried to keep my cool for a minute and just said, "No, just got back from grocery shopping. So just as much fun." But I really wanted to say, " YAY!!!!!" because I knew what she was implying!! She then said, " I have something for you. " and I think I said "Really?!?!" about ten times and she said yes ten times. I then called down to Dan, who was  downstairs, and told him that he needs to come upstairs because today is a really good day. Lesley told us that she really did have no idea the day before when I emailed her....the referral of our daughter had just come in an HOUR before!! :) We put Lesley on speaker phone and I just couldn't stop telling her how amazing this was and I couldn't believe this was happening. Finally, I stopped talking. (Thank goodness....Dan was ready to hear about our daughter and I couldn't stop talking.) ;)

I don't really remember how she told us about her. She may have asked if we wanted to hear about her? OF COURSE! She told us all that she knew about her and then told us that she sent us an email with her picture. My brain stopped working and I said something like, "It's in an email? How do I get that?" Lesley told me to go to my computer. HA! We went, had trouble getting the email, but then we opened it and I shouted, " I LOVE HER!" the same thing I shouted when I was shown Caleb the minute he was born. I couldn't help it either time. Such an amazing moment that I will never forget.  As Lesley told us more about her and went over her medical documents and birth certificate, I tried to focus, but I just couldn't. I finally saw her face and was in love. She is 6 months old right now and has big beautiful eyes. Lesley told us that we could hang up and talk to each other to decided if we wanted to move forward and accept the referral. We asked her if we needed to hang up or if we could just accept her right now! So we did. :)

The adrenaline from that moment on was insane. I couldn't think straight and just wanted to climb up to the roof and shout to everyone about our little girl!! We were supposed to bring brownies to the "STUCK" film screening, but I couldn't stop shaking. So I decided that I would just show up with her picture instead of brownies. Way better than brownies. :)

We told family right away and then ran to CVS to print a bunch of 5x7's and an 8x10 that I carry around! The strangers I met at the park the next morning were very excited for our news. ;)

I can't wait to hold our little girl, but just having her (life-size) picture on hand is helping. :)

Thank you for all of your prayers and support as we have waited for this day. We still have a bit more waiting until we can bring her home. But I am praying that there are no speed bumps along the way and that Jesus would hold our baby close until we get to her.

GOD HAS ANSWERED...

Someone asked me the other day if we had always wanted to adopt. I laughed and said, "NO!" I had seen close friends of mine adopting and thought that it was such a nice idea (and so "nice" of them to do) and that maybe (BIG maaybe) Dan and I would do it some day. Dan would once said something like, " Some days I have a hard enough time loving my own kids. How could I love someone else's?" II love kids in general, but I totally understood what he was saying. We were obviously not feeling called to adopt at that time in our lives. ;)  So anyway, as I was answering this friend, I said that I never really thought about us adopting.

 A few years ago I began learning about modern day slavery and sex trafficking and my heart began to break for all of these things that break God's heart. I was reading my Bible with fresh eyes and saw how much God loved those that we might consider "worthless." He wants us to be their advocates on this earth. I was asking God to just show me how he could use Dan and me. To be honest, I was sad that I couldn't just hop on a plane and go help all of these people that I was reading about in Cambodia, India, Africa, etc. I wanted so badly for God to use me, but I felt like "being a Mom" was holding me back. And then the Holy Spirit nudged me and basically said, "Your family is your mission right now. I will use you right where you are." That thought led Dan and I to the thought of adoption. "Family" is our mission right now and there are countless kids that need a family. We didn't think that we "SHOULD" adopt.....God gave us a strong desire to adopt and a peace that I can't even explain. It was literally the easiest (and biggest) decision we had ever made. So with all that said, GOD HAS ANSWERED our prayer of "how can you use us?" with ADOPTION.

As we waited for the past year and a half, I couldn't help but think about our daughter's birthmother. At the time, I knew nothing about her. I still don't know too much. But I was confident that because she chose LIFE for this little girl, she loved her. I also couldn't help but think that at some point she prayed for this little girl. And possibly asked God to take care of her and to give her a family that would love her unconditionally. And GOD HAS ANSWERED that mother's prayer with ADOPTION.

He has been weaving this story together so beautifully and I feel so blessed to be used by him and to be able to love on our sweet Eliana Nardos Videon. :)

Eliana \e-lia-na\ pronounced el-ee-AH-nah. It is of Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Eliana is "God has answered".

We love you, Eliana. You are an answer to the prayer of two mamas that love you.

May Wait List Number....

If you had asked me last May where we would be in our adoption process in May of 2013, I would have confidently told you that we would have our child home at this point. Our dossier hit Ethiopia in April of 2012 and we were given a 6-9 month referral wait. So, January 2013 marked 9 months of waiting and we were pretty far from the top of the list. The change in wait time was definitely discouraging, but in a way it was expected. International adoption is unpredictable....so expect the unexpected!

So of course, today is May 1st  2013 and even though we are still waiting, I am resting in the TRUTH that God's timing is perfect in our adoption (and everything else for that matter) and we can still be  joyful while we wait. :)

Well, we got our new number today and we are officially in the single digits my friends!


Our family is #9 this month!! Getting closer each month. :) Love it!!  Continue to pray for all of the kids that are waiting to be matches with families. Their world have been turned upside down and lots of changes are ahead for each of them. I know that my kids don't really like change that much. So pray for their little hearts as life changes for them.