Wednesday, September 7, 2016

BEST.DAY.EVER.

I cannot believe I am finally typing these words after so long, but we received our REFERRAL yesterday! I remember so many people saying, "just wait until you see God's perfect timing" and "it WILL happen" and "God's timing is perfect." And some days I loved those words and some days they just STUNG. But, guess what? Our God is SO COOL. He did some amazing things with the timing of this referral (even though we are scratching our head on a few) and you know I am totally going to share all the details with you.






I want to back up to September 5th. Our youngest daughter's THIRD birthday. The third birthday she celebrated without us. One year closer to not being in her toddler years anymore. I spent the day before her birthday feeling sad, but the moment I woke up on her birthday I chose to celebrate her and not dwell on the fact that she wasn't with us. We talked about her constantly and prayed for her throughout the day. We headed up to Portland for the day so that we could visit a Haitian food truck that had recently opened up. It was so worth the drive. The place was called, "Jouk Li Jou" and was owned by the most amazing Haitian woman, Mathilde. She cooks the BEST Haitian food (I really had nothing to compare it to, but I'm confident in this) and even let us practice our creole on her. We've been practicing as much as we can to prepare to meet our girl, but it makes a big difference to speak it with someone who actually KNOWS the language. 

Following our delicious meal, we spent time picking out the perfect outfit to bring on the bonding trip we knew we would have SOMEDAY. A sparkly gray tulle skirt and a sweet little tank top with ballerinas basically jumped out of us (after a ridiculous amount of time searching) and we knew it was the perfect outfit for her. We hear she LOVES to dance. Of course, we pulled out some ice cream bars to finish off her celebration. But, we truly had no idea what was coming when we woke up the next morning.


Fast forward to Tuesday. I woke up with some anxiety so I spent some time reading Psalms and my devotional (Streams in the Desert - LOVE). Then I followed that up with a workout and was feeling so much more peaceful. We had decided last minute to start school today, instead of tomorrow, because it was raining and I needed to go to Costco and I don't "do" rain. Ironic from the girl who lives in Oregon, but it's just a fact of life. 

I walked by my phone and happened to look down at it. I saw that a friend that is also adopting from Haiti had texted and said that she had received her long awaited referral!! I was so busy reading it that I didn't even realize that there was a missed called from Lifeline (our agency). The second I saw the missed call I knew. I started screaming and jumping up and down. This was IT. I immediately called Josh to tell him to "turn that car back around." Actually I think it went more like this, "Do you have a meeting? Please tell me you don't have a meeting? You don't have a meeting right? [insert screaming and hyperventilating] Car. Turn around. Now. Get home. I need you. [more screaming and jumping]." Thankfully he was able to interpret my freak out and got himself home in record time. 

So, we called Morgan (the amazing woman who handles all of our adoption stuff) and we literally get Lifeline's voicemail. We have NEVER had that happen. We stop and pray. I call again and get someone and ask for Morgan. We get her voicemail. I mean it's like a cruel joke at this point. I finally have had enough waiting and call yet again and as I'm calling, Morgan is also calling me. Funny stuff. We finally connect and we basically can't even concentrate on any words but we hear the confirmation that she is ours. After 2 years of praying for her, we finally had that confirmation. But you guys. Here is the most amazing and crazy part. The referral was actually issued on Monday, which as you might remember was her BIRTHDAY. He is SO in the details! 

We still have a LONG road ahead. Our next step will be to go on a 2 week socialization trip where we spend time bonding with our daughter. We will even meet with a social worker while we are there who will evaluate us as future parents to our girl.  After that there a myriad of steps that need to be completed before she can come home. The timeline is pretty varied, but will likely be around 12-18 months. It's painful to think about, but we also know that she WILL be home. God is faithful. And He has been protecting her from the start. Plus, she's at the most amazing orphanage and we feel so confident that they are taking great care of her. We specifically wanted to adopt from Three Angels Haiti and every single day we are so thankful that God made it possible. He knew our baby girl would be there.   

I wanted to end by saying THANK YOU to each person who has prayed for us, checked in on us, and most importantly prayed for us. We have a long road ahead. But we are so thankful by the amazing community that has surrounded us throughout this process. 


**We cannot show her face or share details until she officially shares our last name. Once that happens we will definitely share her beautiful face with you all! 

1 comment:

  1. I stumbled on your blog as I was trying to remember my old blog address (still a mystery) but your post "Can't get you out of my mind" caught my attention so I read it, then fhe next post. Here I sit with tears streaming down my face with excitement and relief. I'm so excited for y'all to get your daughter and in God's timing of the little things. Oh I pray these next 12-18 months are expediate and go smoothly and both your hearts and hers would be filled with joy and expectation and not be deferred or let down. That when your family fully unites it will feel like you've always been together. So excited for y'all! Thanks for sharing!

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