The Referral Call!

So I realize that most of the people who read this blog have heard the story but I wanted to write it down so I don't forget a thing!

First let me go back to last Thursday.  George and I were in PA at the Creation East festival when at 2pm my phone rang and I saw those three little numbers 7 0 3.  "This is it!!!" I thought!!!  It was not.  I'm not sure why but for some reason our family coordinator called just to confirm our request.  I hung up the phone ran to my room tent, flopped on my bed air mattress and balled my eyes out!  I was so disappointed!  Then Friday came when I got a text from a friend asking if we had heard anything and if we knew the offices had closed early:(  I was so very sad.

Skip ahead to Wednesday July 6th.  The day we officially had been waiting for 11 months!!  That day was supposed to look like this:  get up early, pack for shore, pick up mom and Joel, head to OC, stop halfway to pick up lunch, frolic on the beach, get cleaned up, walk the boardwalk and enjoy massive amounts of horrible for me but oh so good food.  Well we made it as far as "stop for lunch" at that point Christin threw up her breakfast in the WAWA bathroom (if you don't know WAWA I'm so very sorry for you:)  After many tears (mostly mine but I had my sunglasses on and refrained from screaming so no one knew) we decided to head back to moms and relax by the pool until Dad got home and could take Mom and Joel to the Boardwalk for the evening while I went home:(

At 3pm I check my phone and there is a missed call from CAITLIN!!!!  I FREAK out and with shaking hands call back but don't get a hold of her.  There is no message:(  So I call George after 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or maybe more than I will admit George answers and says, "That was Caitlin calling me back about a question I asked about updating our homestudy.  She said she is so so sorry she accidentally called you first and she knows how stressful that must have been."  I somehow manage not to cry and accept the fact that the call won't be today:(

At 3:45pm I head home.  At a stoplight I start to text George and ask him if he wants coffee when my phone rings!!!!  I can see it's those three numbers again 7 0 3 but in my excitement and because I have a new phone I can't answer and instead hang up!!!!  AHHHHH!!!!!!!  I call right back and Caitlin says, "Hi Shannon!  George hung up so he could try to call you.  Let me try to conference him back in."  I say, "Ok" but what I'm screaming in my head is "OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS IT!!!!!!!!!!"  and I promptly start balling.  Once we are all on the phone Caitlin says, "Well I have great news for you!  I have a referral for a 5 1/2 month old, perfectly healthy baby boy with the most beautiful brown eyes!  Congratulations!  I'm sending you all his information now"

George patiently waited the 20 minutes it took for me to get home so we could all look at his pictures together and then we spent the next 2 hours making phone calls:)  Here is the video of us seeing his face for the first time:)

Finally we went out to eat to at PF Changs to celebrate (I know not the right cuisine but we figured Christin shouldn't be eating more than white rice)

Now we wait for a court date.  Please join us in praying that God would work a miracle and we would somehow get a court date before the courts close on Aug. 7th.  It would take a miracle but we are going to pray for it anyway and trust God to do what's best!

Thank you so much for the prayers.  I'll leave you with some pics of gifts we've gotten for our boy (who's name is still a little up in the air:)

Nana and Uncle Joel bought him his first OC and Phillies t-shirts on the boardwalk!

A gift from our wonderful babysitter Miss Ashley:)

And the bedding for his room that Nana and Big Daddy bought and have been saving for referral day!  Yay!!!!