Referral!!!!!!!

I have so many wonderful things to say right now, but no words to put them to. We are totally in love with our baby girl. Her name means gift - and that she is.

We got the call that we have dreamed about for 6 yeas, (but never really thought would come)on Thursday morning. The kids and I rushed down to Ryan's office to open the email with her picture and talk to our agency to learn what they know about her.

I have never been so excited to open an email. Knowing that my daughter's face was a few seconds away was surreal. It was love at first sight for all of us. She is amazing. I had thought that I would send her information to an international adoption doctor to get a professional consultation on whether she was healthy... but one look at her and we knew that she is ours. No need for the specialist, THE Specialist made it clear. She is pefectly and wonderfully made. And she is our daughter.

I couldn't think straight all day long as many friends and family I talked to can testify. I could not - and still cannot take my eyes off her picture. I have spent hours looking at her. Crying over her past, praying over her present, dreaming about her future - mostly thanking the Lord for His protection over her and His kindness to give her to us.

Really, I am out of words. So much has happened in two days - so many friends and family have shared our joy with us. I am grateful for all the loving friends we have who have been in this with us from the very beginning, six years ago. I have been learning about Gambella, trying to get to know the place where our baby originated. Maybe I will post later about what I am learning.

But for now, I will end this post knowing that I want so much to be able to express the joy and love in my heart right now, but simply cannot. It is indescribeable.

Golden Ticket

As soon as I saw the metered postage on the plain white envelope I knew that our I 171H had arrived.... FINALLY! It had quite a journey getting to our home, which is not surprising since that summarizes our whole crazy, faith building, adoption process. I pulled out the telltale envelope, inspected the return address and screamed! "We got it!! We got it!!"

My 10 year old scolded me, "Mom, stop. It's embarrassing!" But I could not be hindered. I am so excited and relieved to have approval to bring our baby home.

We filed for immigration approval in late November. Turns out, I could have applied in early October, but I wasn't thinking clearly and thought I needed more paper work than I did. So waiting for the not-needed paper work, I delayed applying by 2 months. Dear Lord, I trust your timing!!!

We waited patiently for our fingerprinting appointment... the first step toward immigration approval. The appointment notice never came to the PO Box. It was sitting in our house mail box for who knows how long. Ryan said we were lucky we didn't miss the appointment. Dear Lord, thank you for your timing.

We were fingerprinted on Dec. 21, 2011. I was hoping for the I171 H to come before my birthday in mid-January. But that week my agency called and asked if we had heard anything and suggested that we look in to why it hadn't come. I contacted the officer working on our case on Jan. 17th. She had mailed a "Request for Evidence" notice to us because when I sent the application, I enclosed an outdated Homestudy from 2009. I was astonished and so disappointed in myself. Dear Lord, you are Ruler of the World and Father to the Fatherless, I trust you.

The amazing thing in all these delays is that there was not ONE referral for a baby girl over those months.

I mailed the correct Homestudy overnight. Checked the delivery confirmation. It had arrived. But for 3.5 long weeks Ryan and I worried that it had gotten lost in the mail, or still wasn't the right paperwork - or that we had just been put at the bottom of some pile. No one from USCIS would return my phone calls. All I could do was pray.

On Wednesday, Feb. 15th before I opened the mail box, I prayed. And there it was!! Yes, Lord!! THANK YOU!!!

I called our agency who congratulated me and said that the I171H is our "Golden Ticket". Our OK from our government to give one child a family, love, proper health care, 3 meals a day, a cozy bed, shoes.

Half way around the world, there are millions of orphans. I am reading a great book called "My Family, A Symphony" by Aaron Eske. In it, he says that UNICEF estimates there are 132 million orphans world wide (there are 80 million children in the US total). He goes on to say "Not every child is destined to win a golden plane ticket and escape poverty in faraway places. Only 0.0003 percent will, that's three in a million. International adoption is a wonderful option for these lucky few, but the millions of others left behind need options too."

There are not nearly enough Golden Tickets.

And my favorite quote at the end of the chapter says, "As I see it, the world will have passed the ultimate equality test the day international adoption becomes obsolete in every nation, when each country has the resources and systems in place to help its families and communities care for all their kids."

Oh, Dear Lord. Father of the Fatherless. Give me passion for your children, the orphans. Thank you for the gift of softening our hearts to the desire to adopt and giving us strength to persevere through these years of the adoption process. To you be the glory.