Can you say....REFERRAL!!!

I received the best belated Mother's Day gift. Yep! We got our referral for a precious 28 month old boy. Over the weekend, I had mentioned to Aaron that I was so ready to get our referral and how nice it would be to know who our son was. I had a feeling that our son was at the care center and that Gladney was finalizing his medical/personal information in preparation of matching us as a family.

Those in the international adoption club love hear about the referral call so here are the details: I was trying to complete a report for work but couldn't concentrate. In fact, I kept thinking about the infamous Gladney FBI List when I should have been focusing on work. Gee, I love the smart ladies who created this FBI List to enable Gladney families in the adoption process to compulsively study the list to predict when a referral and/or court date should come their way. Anyway, I had a feeling that I would probably get a call this week and for sure by next week. I was surprised to find myself disappointed each time my phone rang and our caseworker Abbey's number didn't pop up. Anyway, I sensed Abbey's call coming on Tuesday and sure enough the phone rang at 2:48 showing her number. For some reason, I played it cool and answered in a very professional tone instead of shouting, “Hey Abbey! Bring it on girlfriend...Give me the details!” Abbey's happy sounding voice brought a sense of peace over me. She started out with, Well Pat, I have wonderful news for you and Aaron. Should we see if Aaron is available? Now I know most women refuse to get any of the details about their referral before hubby is on the line or sitting by their side, but my sweet husband had given me permission to go ahead and get the basic details about our child before trying to track him down at work. Why is that? Because he knows that I would jump out of my skin if I had to wait until he was able to talk privately at work about our referral. What a sweet guy! So as Abbey proceeded to give me general details about our referral, a beautiful little boy appears on my computer screen. I immediately connected with his image and told Abbey that I knew without a doubt that this was our son. We quickly tracked down Aaron and he was able to talk privately with us. After hearing all of the detailed information about our son and how he came to be available for adoption, we told Abbey that we would discuss the referral with each other and that she would be hearing from us shortly. After hanging up with Abbey, I immediately called Aaron back and we quickly decided we would accept the referral without having the medical information and photos reviewed by a specialist. We took this extra step when we received Addison's referral and didn't learn anything more about her that wasn't explained in the referral documents. I called Abbey back within a few minutes and told her that we would be honored to parent and love this child. I feel very much at peace now that I've "met" our son. Since this is our second adoption my level of excitement, wonder, and glee has come as a surprise. I am so totally smitten with this little guy. Now the really hard part begins. We must wait to be assigned a court date, be approved by the Ethiopian courts, and then and only then can we officially claim to be this sweet boy's parents. Let the journey continue!