After 5 years, 3 months, and 4 days...

On May 29th, after 5 years, 3 months, and 4 days of waiting, we finally got "the call"! Thomas had had a baseball game, and so we had got the kids to bed a little later than usual. We had just sat down on the couch and Dave had turned on the TV. We have call display that shows up on the TV screen, and when the phone rang, Dave looked at the name and was like, "Do we know this person?" I shouted, "Yes! Get a phone! It's our social worker!" and we scrambled all over the house to find a cordless phone.




When we finally answered she asked if we knew why she was calling. My answer was something like, "No. Well, I mean, I HOPE I know, but I don't really know anything." She laughed and told us she finally had an official proposal to go over with us, a 6 year old boy named Bereket. She spent about 15 minutes on the phone with us and then emailed us his information. Seeing Bereket's face for the first time was so magical! He looks so serious, but handsome. His eyes are sad, and you can just tell he has experienced a lot in his 6 years. It is so nice to finally have a face and a name to pray for specifically after all these years!


By the time we had read through his file, it was far too late to wake the kids and tell them! We wanted to talk to Dr. Baxter, the international adoption doctor, before we made an official public announcement, just in case. I knew Thursday would be a tough day for me as I do NOT do secrets well (especially good secrets!!!). I told a few dear "adoption friends" and a couple very close people during the day on Thursday. Our consult with the doctor was not scheduled until 8:30 pm, so we decided to tell the kids before they went to bed. 

The kids were so awesome when we told them. We spoke to Faith separately so that if she had any big feelings about not getting a baby, we could address that without an audience. But the only big feeling appeared to be joy! She is so ready to move on with the process (like the rest of us!) She was so thrilled that "they picked us for a kid". And she's excited to have TWO little brothers. Thomas was happy, but I think he has almost been assuming he'd get a close-in-age brother, so he was just sort of "that's good" and back to the business of playing. 

After we told the kids, we had fun calling the grandparents and aunts & uncles and sharing our exciting news. I had all these fun ideas in mind for how to do the announcement, but when it actually came down to it, I was too impatient to have t-shirts printed or anything like that! We had fun calling everybody and asking questions like "do you think 3 kids will fit in the hot tub?" or whatever (different for each person). 

Later, we had our phone consult with the adoption doctor and it was excellent! Bereket's medical looks very straightforward, and she had lots to say about attachment and transitions and virtual twinning and more. It was a 90 minute phone call and I definitely feel it was worth the $200 she charged. I'm so glad that we have her available as a local resource for after the adoption. So much wisdom and experience (she is also an adoptive parent herself).

Friday, May 31, we emailed in our acceptance and also announced to our extended family and friends. It was so exciting to finally be able to post on the Yahoo group and update the database! What a milestone!

Just for fun, here is the little video that the kids made to announce our proposal on Facebook.