Referral Details

Tuesday morning, October 13th didn't begin like my usual Tuesday mornings. First of all, Sam had stayed all night with his grandparents because I had to be at work very early for a meeting. So my morning routine was quite peaceful - not having a child to get up and get ready and all. I was doing my hair and make-up in the bathroom when a thought occurred to me: today might be the day. You know, the day we get THE CALL. I had been having this thought lately, but this morning just felt different. It felt real.

Let me also mention that I had emailed our adoption coodinator the day before to ask her thoughts about when we might get a referral. The end of the year is fast approaching and we've been holding on to the last of our vacation days, hoping of course that we would be traveling to Ethiopia this year. I wanted to know her opinion - should I use the days now or save them. Well, she didn't respond back to my email and I really wanted an answer asap so I could mark my days on the vacation calendar at work. So because I'm expecting an email reply I decide to take my laptop to work so I could check my personal email at lunch. I work for one of those big companies that severely restricts our internet access - but the office I work in on Tues/Thurs has Wifi.

Well, Tuesday morning at work was kind of slow which is unusual for my Tuesdays. It was around 11:00 am eastern time when my office phone rang. It was Charles on the line - he said, "Hey, Children's Hope is on the other line, can you talk?" Yes!! He said, "Okay, she's gonna call you. " Thankfully there were no clients in sight. Again, very unusual for this time on a Tuesday morning. So I made a quick sign and posted on my office door saying I would be right back. I didn't want to take a chance on a client walking in while I was on this call! The phone rang immediately and it was Ashley from CHI. After the pleasantries and letting me know that Charles was on the line she said, "I got your email yesterday and I didn't respond because I knew I would be calling you today. We have a referral for you."

I had always imagined I would just burst into tears upon hearing those words. But I didn't. I said something like, "You just made my day" and then I listened as she told us about our little girl. I took notes as she talked and I felt only one thing - peace. Our call was short because now I had client's lined up outside my door. I reopened my office, waited on my clients, and then was able to check my email and see her picture for the first time. Charles unfortunately would have to wait until that evening.

Charles and I talked a few more times on the phone as I described her to him. Later that afternoon, Sam called me at work and I told him that our adoption agency had called us. I was a little bit worried about his reaction, because in all honesty we haven't talked about the adoption at all with him in the last couple of months. Losing our other referral was just too disappointing and tough to talk about. But, he was so excited though when we told him!! Again everything was just feeling - right.

Later that evening, we were brainstorming for names. And Sam was criticizing every name Charles and I were coming up with. When suddenly I said, "What about Elizabeth and we could call her Libby." Charles said, "Yeah, I like that." So we called Sam down from his room expecting another criticism. But as soon as I said "Elizabeth" he said, "YES, that the name!" So that is her name: Elizabeth (her Ethiopian name) Dishman aka Libby.

We have decided to not show her picture to our other family members or friends until after we pass court. It was just too hard last time. Grandparents had Alison's picture up in their house, cousins grew attached to this little girl in the picture, and it was just too hard when things didn't work out. We feel really good about this referral and fully expect everything to be just fine, but for now only Charles, Sam, and I are going to see her face and know all the details surrounding our precious Libby.

So, what next? We wait for a court date. Our agency says that we could travel in January at the earliest. And guess what - our fingerprints expire in January. So here we go again for a third time to be fingerprinted. But it doesn't really matter. We'll do whatever is necessary to bring Libby home.