December 12, 2012-REFERRAL DAY!

 Jeremiah and I were pretty pumped after receiving the e-mail from our case worker on December 11. Jeremiah (as he has been through this entire process) was calm and kept saying that he wasn't getting too excited until we received the referral. I, on the other hand, was thrilled and couldn't focus on anything else.
  Luckily, my school had an early out day and our meeting finished a bit early. I decided to call Alicia and ask her a few questions. When I called her she immediately responded, "You have been so patient today. I thought you would be calling first thing in the morning." I laughed and said that I was pretty happy with hearing that we would be matched (probably) around the end of the month. She then said, "Well..I can do better than that. I can tell you about your little boy right now. I can also send you pictures soon." I was speechless. This was not how I pictured getting our referral. I was by myself, at school, and Jeremiah was not there. I said, "When do you mean soon?" She said that she was sending me the pictures right then. Alicia went on to say, "Kortny, let me tell you a bit about your son. He is 9 months old and just adorable. He has beautiful eyes and curly black hair. He is just beautiful." Again, I was speechless. At this point, I was crying but I wanted to soak everything in and remember every word she was telling me.
  I told Alicia thank you and that I would get back to her later that day. I told her that I was not going to open the pictures because Jeremiah wasn't with me. I literally ran to my friend Nicci's room in tears and told her the news. Then I got it together and called Jeremiah. Jeremiah was in the grocery store (again, not how I thought our referral day would take place) and I told him the news. He was speechless too. I told him that I was going to pick Olivia up and then I would meet him at home to open up the pictures. I also asked him to set up the camera so that we could tape our reactions. Before Olivia was born we took video of us telling our parents about Olivia, so we wanted to do something similar for our little boy. Before I left school I *may* have sprinted down the hallway to tell a few of my other teacher friends.:)
  I went to pick up Olivia and then met Jeremiah at home. Jeremiah and I kept telling Olivia that we had a huge surprise for her. She felt horrible and kept asking for medicine (again..not how I pictured our referral day). As soon as we set the camera up, we opened up the e-mail. OH.MY.GOODNESS. Our hearts just melted and tears started flowing. We could not believe that were seeing OUR son. I lost it and Olivia looked at me like I was crazy. For the past two years I had imagined this moment, the moment I saw my son. It was EXACTLY as I had hoped our referral day would go. As soon as we saw his face we knew he was OUR son. I'll be honest, I was nervous that maybe I wouldn't feel any connection to him, but that was not the case. I knew from the moment I saw him that we he was destined to be in our family.
   Let me tell you about my boy. He has beautiful eyes that shine, precious lips that I can't wait to kiss, big cheeks that I want so squeeze, a perfect fro, and chunky little legs that means he has been fed.
 This entire time I've been praying that his birth mom or whoever was taking care of him was feeding him. This prayer request has definitely been answered because my little buddy is chunky and I love it! Praise God for showing me answered prayers just through these pictures.
  Olivia beamed with joy as she saw her baby brother's pictures. She kept kissing the screen and saying that she couldn't wait to bring him home. Olivia also pointed to Jeremiah and said, "He kind of looks like you." We cracked up at this and she said she thought they looked alike because they both have black hair.
  It was a fun night as we called both sets of parents and then showed all of them our little boy. We also told my sisters and I will never forget their reaction. We waited until Friday to tell Jeremiah's siblings because we were all going to NYC together for the wedding. We told his siblings at the airport and they were happy for us.
  After we told our family members we called Alicia back and I asked her to retell me some of information she had told me earlier that day. I wanted Jeremiah to hear from her and I also couldn't remember some of the information because I was so pumped. Alicia told us that our little boy had just been had the Thomas Center for two days. (Sidenote-our little boy had been in an orphanage for 5 months and he was then transferred to the Thomas Center when he was ready to be matched with us). She said that they were going to do tests on him and that most of the tests would come back by the next week. However, the HIV test would not come back for 10-15 days.
  Jeremiah and I both had a peace about the whole situation. We knew there was a possibility that he could have HIV or some other disease, but we were hopeful that he did not. We decided to tell some of our close friends here in Champaign (so that they could pray for us) and I told my co-workers (because I could not go to work knowing I had a son and not tell them!) However, we wanted to wait until his HIV results came back to announce it to the rest of the world.
  Our referral day did not go as I had envisioned because it was better than anything I could have dreamed of or imagined.

Here is the video: vimeo.com/56041419

A little glimmer of hope!

***I wrote this blog post on December 11, 2012 after talking to our case worker. ***


Here are parts of the e-mail I received from our case worker today:

  "We had two new little ones arrive at TC today and their documents are in translation.  I should be receiving pictures and at least an idea on their history or medicals tomorrow. You and a few others will be matched officially very soon. "

When I received this e-mail I ran into the other room and told Jeremiah to listen to the e-mail I received from Alicia. I was SO thrilled to tell him about this e-mail that I forgot to actually bring my computer to Jeremiah so he could hear me read the e-mail. You can't imagine me doing this, can you?:) 

Our little boy is there. He is at the Thomas Center. He has a name and he is OUR boy! We don't know who he is yet, but she implied that he is there. They still have to do a few tests on him before he can be referred to us. Our case worker said they should start these tests by the end of the week and then the results will take 10-15 days to come back. I assume we will be matched after the tests come back (praying they come back clear!) and we are willing to accept him. 

You have no idea (okay some of you do!) how great it was to read the words "You will be matched officially very soon." I know by now that "soon" may not mean what I think it does. Soon to me means tomorrow and I know that won't happen.:)

My heart is filled with joy as I think about adding him to our little family. My heart is also hurting for my boy and what he has gone through during his short little life. Like I've said from the beginning, my boy NEEDS his mommy!

I can't wait to update this blog to let you know that we have been matched.

Never far from our thoughts...

  When we first started this blog I said I was going to take pictures every month and obviously that didn't happen. I want our little guy to realize that even though he wasn't with us, we still thought of him during every special event (and actually multiple times every single day). I just found these pictures that I meant to post a few months ago.

*Olivia's first day of pre-school. She was thrilled to attend her first day with her little friend Ava.

 *Olivia and Daddy carved a big pumpkin together. Olivia bought a little pumpkin for brother and decorated it on her own. She was proud of herself! Olivia asked if we could keep the pumpkin until baby brother comes home. I had to tell her no and she was not happy about that!

 *We were number 2 when Olivia painted this pumpkin.

 *For many months we waited patiently for God to reveal our sweet little boy's face to us.

*Our Christmas season started with us being number 2 on the list....

 and on December 12, 2012 we saw our little boy's face for the first time. What a glorious day for our family!! I will post more about this day soon!

 *Olivia gave my parents and Jeremiah's parents a picture of baby brother for Christmas. This is a picture of my mom opening her gift.

NYC wedding

  Jeremiah's youngest brother got married in New York City a few weekends ago. We had a blast with the Cox family in NYC.  The wedding was extremely fancy and it was like we were in a movie! It was incredibly nice to hear that some of the inheritance from Jeremiah's G-ma Cox paid for our way out there. We were able to hang out with Jeremiah's extended family and it was just what G-ma Cox would have wanted!
  Olivia was the flower girl in the wedding and she was just precious. She ran down the aisle and forgot to throw the petals. Then I motioned for her to throw the petals and she threw a bunch right at the end of the aisle.
  We had an awesome time dancing, hanging out, and being goofy with Jeremiah's family. It is a memory that we will never forget.
Here are some pictures:

         *Olivia enjoyed doing goofy moves and "striking a pose" while we waited for the bridal party to change. 

          

                 *The Cox family at the wedding.

             *The amazing ceremony/reception!

Family Prayer Time

Jeremiah, Olivia, and I have started a nightly family prayer time before Olivia goes to bed. It's one of the highlights of my day. We always say something we are thankful for and then say someone we want to pray for that night. After we are all done praying we read a few Bible stories together. Here is Olivia's sweet prayer tonight...
 
   "God please wrap your arms around my baby brother and keep him safe and healthy."

I'm just so thankful for this family God has blessed me with. And..to think that one more will be added soon just makes me want to squeal with delight. :)

10:00 on the dot

    Every day my class goes to recess at 10:00a.m. and every day at that time I check my phone just to make sure that my sitter doesn't need me. At this time every single day I think about our little boy because I know it's 8:00a.m. in Washington where our case worker resides. I know she's about to start her day and I think that maybe I will hear something from her about our little boy.
    Ya'll I am tired of waiting. There..I said it. We started this journey 19-20 months ago and I am just ready to see my little boy's face. I was explaining to my friend that I have a knot in my stomach every day. I check my e-mail frequently and every time my phone rings I check to see if it's our agency's number. We are so close to the end and it really could be any day that we receive a referral (or it could be months).
    When you are pregnant you have a due date and I have no idea when I will be able to hold my little boy. I never thought it would be this hard to wait. I know that I'm not even in the extremely hard waiting part yet which occurs after I actually meet my son (and have to leave him in Ethiopia for a few months).
     I was reading Jen Hatmaker's story about how one day she felt that she needed to pray intensely for the children she was adopting from Africa. She remembered that date and then was surprised to see that something amazing happened with her two kids (the children she adopted) on that very date. I had this experience back on September 26, 2012. I was praying in the morning and I had an overwhelming feeling that my son needed my prayers. I'm really interested to see how this date plays into his story or if it means anything at all. All I know is that on that day I was having my morning quiet time and just dropped to my knees in prayer (and many tears).
    I promise you that I realize it will be worth it. I know God has this perfect kid for us. But..at times it just stinks. I feel like every morning I wake up and it's Christmas Eve. You know the feeling that you got when you were a little kid and woke up knowing that Santa was coming that night or that you were going to get surprises that next day? Well..I feel like that every day. I'm not complaining because I picked this route. I have an amazing life and I'm incredibly blessed by my hubs and sweet little Olivia. However, I am a little grumpy sometimes because I just want to hear something positive about our adoption.

 On a higher note, I'm praising God today for the multiple blessings he has blessed me with this week. Here are just a few:
 1. My amazing husband who just makes me happy. I'm so thankful that I get to be married to him.
 2. Olivia-dancing, singing, making goofy voices, asking deep questions about God, and just her overall delightful personality.
3. I'm thankful for our health.
4. Fabulous family members who make our life wonderful.
5. My students are collecting money for a local charity. One parent told her son that she would match however much he wanted to put in to the collection. He got out his wallet and emptied it for our collection. What a sweet boy!
6. Encouraging e-mails from parents.
7. Hearing Olivia pray
8. Kind words from numerous students
9. A lazy evening at home
10. Receiving Christmas cards and thanking God for each family/friend.

  

Two (a very belated post:))

   After talking to people over the holiday week I realized that I never posted about us being moved to number 2 on the list. In my last post I wrote that our case worker told us we would be number 1 within a week. Obviously, that didn't happen. One family accepted their referral, but the other family did not accept the second referral. The second child was too old for us to accept. Therefore, we are now number 2 and not number 1.We moved to number 2 in September.

  We hear news that there could be a few little ones at the orphanage but that it could take up to 3 months for their paperwork to be ready. This makes me think that our son is at an orphanage and I just pray that his nannies are loving on him. I would really like to pray that God reveals our son to us by Christmas, but I know I can't do this. As tough as it is to wait, I know that God is in control. But..wouldn't it be just wonderful for us to hear this news by Christmas!?:) Ha! I am really not getting my hopes up (okay..just a little bit!:)).

 Please keep praying for our journey. We appreciate your support prayers!