A couple weeks ago we saw pictures of our son. When we got the phone call we were surprised and obviously beyond excited. It will be a few months before we get our first court date and can go meet him, then we make a second trip and can bring him home.
Here is the timeline so far . . .
December 2013 we applied with the adoption agency
February 2014 we started our home study with the state of Illinois
Fall 2014 our home study was approved (this took longer than usual because of our slow speed of completing paperwork and our state’s current approval time). I think you can usually get it done in about 4 months (?)
Sometime in the winter, with our home study being done and our bill paid to agency, we were put on the wait list for Ethiopia
January 2015 we found out we were number 17 on the wait list
Tuesday, April 28th at 2pm we received a referral. Here is a basic outline of how the next 3 minutes changed our lives.
Voicemail from agency : “Hi Kali, I just wanted to talk to you about a couple of things. Call me when you get a chance.”
Me on gchat to Tye with my left hand as I call the agency with my right hand: Hey, agency called. Calling back.
Tye: what is it
Me: don’t know calling now
Agency on the phone: “Hi Kali, how are you?
Me: (who cares, tell me why you’re calling) “I’m great, thanks. How are you? (tell me why you’re calling)
Tye on gchat: what’s she saying
Me: not sure
Agency: “I just had a couple of questions (longest pause ever).”
Me: (waited through pause an appropriate amount of time because I thought she would keep talking …she didn’t) “Okay, sure.”
Agency: “Soooooooooooo I’mmmmmmmmmmmmm loooooooooooooookiiiiiiiiiing aaaaaaaaaaaaaaat yooooooooooooooour fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiile (I won’t do that anymore but my point is that she wasn’t talking as quickly as I wanted her to). You and Tye had requested a sibling group, right?”
Me: “Uh . . . yes.” (Trying short answers with hopes it would make her talk more)
Tye on gchat: is something wrong?
Me: don’t know
Agency: “Okay. So is a sibling group your preference?”
Me: “Not necessarily (some more words explaining why we said a sibling group but that really it didn’t matter).”
Agency: “Alright. Well also I see you selected ‘male’ as your preference. Is that right?”
Me: “Um yes . . . But we don’t really have a preference, we just said that because we had to put an answer down (more words explaining our decisions for the application).”
Tye on gchat: ?
Me: asking our preferences
Agency: (the master of long pauses and slow speaking) “Welllllll . . . You’ve been matched with a baby!”
I’m laughing, crying, and trying to catch details. I typed to Tye as I heard her say words:
Boy
6 months
Healthy
Email coming with pictures
I thanked her, asked how we moved up the list so quickly, asked what to do next. Didn’t pay attention to any of the answers.
I called Tye and we opened the email at the same time. We spent a few minutes talking about how awesome he is, like all of his features were just the best thing we’ve ever seen. Then we both had to work a few more hours which sounds great but it wasn’t.
We can’t post any pictures online but I CAN describe him.
He’s cuter than this
And this
And this
And this
And this
And this, too.
So now we do a little more paperwork and pray. We pray we can get to him quickly, we thank God for the people who are caring for him right now, and for his birth parents. We pray that if there is any chance for reconciliation with his biological family that it would happen soon. We pray we can be good parents.
We know many families have waited longer than we have and have been through much more emotional and physical hardship. We’re so thankful, excited, hopeful and nervous. We’ve memorized his face and lab results because that’s all we have.
More efforts are continuing to help families stay together all over the world. In the meantime, my opinion is that as long as there are kids abandoned and placed in orphanages, adoption is one answer. Kids thrive in loving families regardless of race or geography.
This is my opinion and yours may be different. It’s cool. It won’t change how much I love my son.
theeckerthouse 