WE GOT A REFERRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got a referral of a precious 20 month old boy from Uganda today!!!! I am thrilled to announce we accepted after two hours of seeing his face!

Around 12:00 p.m. today our agency called me while I was in the car on the way back from the doctor's office. With my kids sick in the car, I sat in the drive way listening to the description of our child from our social worker at Generations. She said, "he is very beautiful...she had to stop for a second when she first saw his picture"...I was in shock and thrilled at the same time....We have a referral!!!! I called Dee at his office and told him the news as he proceeded to open the email...he said, "oh...here it is".... Then, I hung up on him because I did not want him to see the pictures while I was on the phone. I wanted to see him for myself! 

So I drug my kids into the house to look the computer. As they tried to push each other out of my lap we sat there in front of the computer screen and opened the email.... ((No, it was not this peaceful quite time that I had imagined in getting a referral, but...it's real life!))... when I opened the email and looked at his picture, I thought, Wow, he is beautiful!...Henry said, "He's cute!", Mary Taylor said, "Daaaa"...I tried to call Dee back, but my phone died and then my kids were really upset. So I let Henry watch a movie and fed Mary Taylor lunch. Of course all I wanted to do at this point was go downstairs and look at his face again so I could soak it all up! Oh my gosh! We have a child!!! I finally got to talk to Dee....he said, "Wow, this all of a sudden got real!..This just feels right"... and he said we should talk about it tonight and ask our pediatrician friend down the street to look over his medical records. He had to go pretty fast because his firm is moving buildings today and it was a little chaotic.

Ok, right, we need to take our time and pray and think about this decision. He is two months older than Mary Taylor...'they' say it can be hard with a child older than one of your other children. So that's a factor to think about...Oh my, he might be older than two before we see him...All these thoughts are running through my mind!....Oh my goodness....we have a child from Uganda!!!!!! I get Mary Taylor down for a nap and Henry has fallen asleep in front of the TV after he lost his marbles for the fourth time today. Poor guy! (t.m.i.) Now...I finally get a chance to see his face again. Oh my...he is just precious and beautiful! Is this really happening!!!! Our child is real!!! 

Why are we waiting to make a decision? Isn't this the child God has hand picked from the beginning of time to be in our family. We knew we were going to say yes to the first child we received, unless we had a clear indication that this was not God's will. But... it just all feels right! I tried to convince Dee to put 0-1 on our homestudy, but clearly God knew that our child would be older, so he used Dee's wisdom to weave our story and we decided to ask for a child 0-2 years old. 

So....I called Dee back and I said,"Why are we waiting to make a decision? There are 147,000,000 orphans in the world and I don't think I can look at this precious face any longer without accepting  him as our child! I know we should think and pray about our decision, but I think God has already made the decision for us! Let's just do it!" Dee said, "ok!...let's do it!" 

So I called our agency to tell her "We Accept!"...Well, she said, "Great!" But, I still want you to take the weekend to think about it and take his medical records to a doctor to look them over. I know you probably will not change your mind, but just take the weekend and call me on Monday." 

Well, yes, our minds are made up, but we will do as she says and take the weekend, but in our minds we have accepted and we are moving forward!!!

What's the next step? 

 After we talk to our social worker on Monday, she will contact the orphanage in Uganda. Then we will send our Dossier to the Ugandan government and hopefully receive a court date sooner than later. The Ugandan courts close from July 15th-August 15th, so it will be the end of August at the earliest. 

We are just so excited to KNOW the child that God has loved, ordained, and perfectly planned to be in our family!!!!

(Due to Ugandan Law we cannot post pictures of him on our blog. Thanks for understanding and hopefully sooner than later he will be in our arms and home with us forever for lots of pictures to come!)