Hello Friends, As many of you have requested I am going to try and blog about our journey. Please forgive me as I am not much of a writer but thought it would be good for friends and family to follow our journey.
A Litte Background:
Where to begin? It has been a long journey thus far. After being fingerprinted about 7 times, having psychological evaluations, background checks, a thorough home study where a social worker comes to our home to talk with us and tour where our child will be living, reporting all of our financial status, multiple doctor appointments to determine we are healthy and a few home study updates we are excited to let you know that we received the "call". This is a call that our social worker and program caseworker from our adoption agency place to both Jeff and I to review a file for a child a private casa has chosen to join our family. We have been waiting for and praying about this for over 3 years.
After our dossier (all of our paperwork that is notarized and apostilled) arrived in the country in December 2011 after taking 6 months to compile, we were told that we could expect a wait of 6-18 months for a referral. As you can imagine once June 2012 rolled around, we were anxious as we knew the "call" could come at any time. We were told that once we got a referral it would be about 6-8 weeks before we would travel so we would have time to get ready to travel for 6-8 weeks out of the country.
As time went on, and we had not heard any news, it was hard to not be anxious about if and when this was going to happen. As with trying to get pregnant with Isaac it was not in our timing but in God's timing and I relied heavily on knowing that his timing is perfect. I had to tell myself over and over that there was nothing that I could control but rather needed to realize that God had this handled and knew the plan he had for us. I prayed every day to remain focused on the blessings that I have and I tried to not get consumed in why is this not happening as quickly as I would like. This was difficult at times for sure but I believe that God gave us a peace that he can only bring in a time of waiting. I added the song "while I am waiting" by John Waller to my playlist and listened to it often. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHIqOHU6Dhg. One theme that we heard over and over in our adoption seminars and information sessions is that there is one common theme in international adoption....many things are not in your control. I did not realize at the time what that meant but do now and I am sure there is more to be realized once we travel.
Jeff and I would joke that it was something that we talked about often but just felt that it was never going to happen. He is my rock in times of doubt and is always the calm and collected one..imagine that!! :-) He would say "Kristy, God has this handled, have faith and pray, I am not worried and I know it is going to happen!". I am so thankful for his patience and listening ear throughout this entire process. He really has been so calm and so faithful. Jeff has kept track of all of the paperwork and dates through this entire process and I am so thankful for him. I get choked up just thinking about it honestly.
The Call:
It was October 14th 2013 around 11:30 and my cell phone rings while I am at work. Usually I don't answer my phone when I am working and don't recognize the number but for some strange reason I decided to answer it. Here is what I heard:
"Hi Kristy, this is Katie (our social worker), we are calling with some exciting news and wondering when we can talk to you and Jeff together. What would be a good time?" I am sitting in my cube at work with all my friends/coworkers around and I burst in to tears (of happiness of course :-) ). I told her I would call her back in just a minute and proceeded to call Jeff who was worried something happened as I called completely crying. We arranged to both leave work and come home around 3pm to have a conference call. I tried to stay at work for as long as possible but honestly the anticipation and excitement was so high and it was so hard to concentrate. My coworkers did know what was happening and sent me home with lots of hugs and prayers. I met Jeff at home around 2:30 and we cried and prayed and hugged and sat staring at the phone for 30 minutes. Katie and Deb called and said "we are so excited to tell you we have received a referral of a beautiful healthy baby GIRL!!!" They then reviewed baby girls social and health history with us and then sent over a picture via email. I seriously fell in love that very second and the tears flowed again.
When Isaac was born my mom gave me a plaque that hangs in our room with the verse 1 Samuel 1:27. It says "For this child I have prayed, and the Lord has granted me what I have asked of him." This verse went through my head over and over again. She is absolutely beautiful. So sweet and so small. We are in love beyond words.
