One Year Ago...(Referral)

One year ago we got an important phone call...
A call to tell us that we were matched with the little boy in this picture (the first of three pictures we saw of him that day.)









 Before I go into our blog posts from that day, I wanted to say that despite that it took a lot longer than the "predicted" time frames for Million to actually make it home, we are so happy with how God worked the details out for us.  We've been truly blessed.  Many times people tell us that Million is a lucky little boy.  And we don't agree.  He's not lucky to have had his family of origin and culture snatched from him.  We are the lucky ones.  Our eyes and hearts have been opened to new wonders and new worlds.  Our souls have been touched.  We will never be the same.  So this post is dedicated as time of remembrance to the many minute miracles that God does to change hearts of stone into hearts of flesh and change minds from entitlement to gratitude.  May God be glorified in our remembrance.


Here are some excerpts of our blog post from that day. 


Dear Lil' Dude:

We met you today.

Not physically, of course.

But we got to see your face and hear your name and all sorts of beautiful things.

I had been selfishly praying about your first name. I wanted it to be unique and brilliant.

It is.

Some details that I might forget a few years from now:

At 4:00 a.m., as your daddy was leaving for work, I was panicking because my cellphone was downstairs, and I might miss a referral call. Our agency is in a different time zone.... but even that did not necessitate panicking at 4 in the morning.

Your daddy worked a day shift and came home. He bought 25 pounds of Cortland apples on the way (he was supposed to get 25 pounds of Haralsons, but the bags were poorly marked.)

4 o'clock came. (our agency would have been closed.) Grandma and Grandpa F were coming over any minute to do some work on our bathroom project.

I got a cellphone call that said it was from our social worker, which was kind of odd. Still don't know why it was routed through her phone.

I am so happy, Lil' Dude, that your daddy was standing right there and was able to hear the referral call with me. It's more than I ever dreamed.

My boss was kind enough to give me the rest of the day off. I wouldn't have been able to type anyway.

You are a beautiful nearly 6 month old baby boy, with the thickest little lips and a head full of curly hair.

Your daddy and I have been using phrases from the doxology all afternoon, so there is no better way that I can think to end this letter to you...

Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow

Praise Him all Creatures Here Below

Praise Him Above Ye Heavenly Hosts

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Amen.

Love,

Mama

....

At 4 o'clock, we figured our agency was closed for the day (because it's 5 in Virginia.)

My phone rang, and the number that showed up on the caller ID was our social worker in Minnesota's phone number. I figured she could be calling to just check in on us, since it's almost been a year since we last verbally spoke with her. Also, we were still number four on the list...so a referral wasn't probable in my mind.

It wasn't our social worker.

It was our family coordinator who somehow was routing through our social worker's phone in Minnesota. She said "Hi, Heather, it's ______. Is Michael there? I've got some happy news for you."

Michael saw the confused and panicked look in my face and came into the office.

I had a hard time remembering how to put my phone on speaker phone. But it happened.

For half of our referral call, I was trying to figure out how to get our camera on the video setting. I must have pressed every button at least 12 times. I finally got it to work, and captured some very nonflattering angles of both of us, where Michael doesn't do anything because he's so focused on clicking "refresh" over and over again to get our referral e-mail.

.....................................................
More on how life has changed to come tomorrow...