So, for the story . . .

Right after church, Joseph and I and Joseph's sister and brother-in-law drove to Toledo, Ohio, where we spent a night and morning with the David Bayly family, brothers and sisters at Christ the Word Church and with Douglas and Nancy Wilson. It was an incredibly encouraging time, and could take another blog post, but I won't do that now. We arrived back in Bloomington, and I'm now finally sitting down to write out the full referral story - you know, the female told version that includes all the details.

Friday morning began much the same way as each morning for the past two months has; wondering and hoping if today would be the day we would get our referral. I had been on a 'baby fast' for a few days to keep my sanity - this meant not checking the yahoo group or blogs trying to figure out if/when our referral would be, and not looking at baby gear. However, it was still always in my mind.

I rode the bus to Joseph's office to pick up our car, sat down in the driver's seat and saw a note on the windshield that said "Come talk to me," followed by a heart (which I read as an exclamation point). I smiled and hoped, but tried to check myself as I walked to his office door. He came out and said simply, "Michal called and you don't have to babysit this morning." I was disappointed, but there was nothing I could do about it, so I sat down to study some Latin and then met a friend for lunch before heading off to Latin class.

After Latin I walked back to Joseph's office to pick up our car and decided I would stop in and say hi to him. I knocked on his office window and he turned around with a big smile. We met at the door and he told me, "So, I was just sitting there figuring out how to get ahold of you. We've got to call Terra back. She said she has some good news for us." Then I smiled from ear to ear. After that we entered one of those surreal moments that you hope for for so long and can't quite grasp as real when it does come.

We called her back, put her on speaker phone and listened as she told us we had a 6 month old son. I didn't really catch much after that. The next thing we did was open up the referral email from Terra and look at his pictures. He was/is cute as cute can be and just looked like he should be our son. I doubted a bond could actually happen and I could get attached to a baby I'd never met, but, that's how it works. Then we opened the files about his information and found that he was already named part of the name we were going to give him! How amazing is that?!

We soaked up the next half hour together, reading about our son and looking at his picture. Then we decided to begin the phone calls.

We thought we would try the Bayly grandparents, but, knowing they were on their way back from Mexico, assumed we wouldn't get ahold of them. We didn't. So, we tried my mom at work and home. No answer. I didn't have my dad's cell phone number, so we moved to calling Joseph's oldest sister.

The phone rang and finally our 5-year-old nephew, Nathan answered. We both said hello and asked to talk to his mom. He very politely said "Just a moment, please" and we waited . . . and waited . . . and waited. After two minutes we began to yell at the phone "Hey!!! Pick us up!!!!" More silence. Finally Nathan came back on the phone to say "Mom said I have to go out. She's putting the baby to bed." Joseph and I laughed and decided we'd just tell Nathan first. So, we said, "Nathan, we have a baby!" His response, a deadpan "oh." We laughed and said to tell his mom we had a 6-month old baby boy. He said, "okay." We thanked him for praying for us and he said "you're welcome." So, that was our first reaction to telling someone the news . . . 'oh.' It still cracks me up.

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing a few more phone calls and then posting the news on the internet. We have been SO blessed by all the responses from so many of you! Some of my high school classmates even wrote back thrilled for us! We are so encouraged that you all get to share in our joy . . . some of you crying for joy at your desk. We love it and love you and LOVE our new baby boy.

P.S. Since he is not legally ours yet by Ethiopian standards, we can't share his name or picture on a public site. So, you'll have to wait until we pass our court date to see his beautiful face!