Yes, I got a referral!

Sorry for the confusion my last message created for some of you.  I was trying to share news without the luxury of the time to do so properly.  I’ll rewind. 

Last week I cracked.  I had been somewhat patient in my wait for a referral, but that patience abandoned me weeks ago.  By last week I was beyond reason; pretty much losing my sanity when I started to believe that I wouldn’t receive a referral until next month.  As a result, when given the opportunity to take the little guy on a weekend trip away, I thought it would be good for both of us.  He’d get to go to an amusement park and I’d get to get away from the stress of the wait (I hear those of you who have adopted laughing right now).

While we were on our trip I emailed my coordinator to see whether she thought there would be any new baby girl referrals.  Since becoming #1 on the wait list, I had started emailing her once a week to check in.  I figured emailing was less invasive than calling, when I figured she would sit there thinking “would you please stop asking me when you’re getting a referral?”  I usually check in on Monday, but since I had just hit the month mark at #1, decided to accelerate it.  Sometimes our agency gets word that new children have come to the orphanage but they can’t give the referral because they’re waiting on medical info, etc.   My coordinator responded to my question saying “no; nothing right now.”  I figured it would be at least a couple of weeks before I heard anything, so I just resigned myself to another period of staring at the phone, willing it to ring and being disappointed when 3:00 rolled around on weekdays and my agency shut down for the night. 

Oscar and I wrapped up our trip and headed to the airport early, where we sat for hours waiting for our much delayed flight.  The not so perfect ending to a quick trip to the Happiest Place on Earth.  I spent some time emailing friends and colleagues and when our flight was finally about to depart grabbed my phone to turn it off.  I looked down and was more than a little surprised to see this…

Missed calls from my agency!  I was pretty sure I knew what this meant, so I hustled to call my coordinator as quickly as possible while juggling Oscar, my 20 pound monster bag (the orange leather one in the pic below – greatest diaper bag ever, BTW!), my blackberry, my phone and Oscar’s stroller (which I was trying to simultaneously fold up) as we walked down the jetway to the plane.  My coordinator gave me all the relevant details – beautiful little baby girl, 3 months, maybe 4 months old, where she comes from and what her name is and its meaning (which is so perfect).  And she told me at least three times how beautiful she was, which ended up being really nice to hear because the picture of I got wasn’t the greatest quality.  We got off the phone when the flight attendant kept glaring at me, and I kept downloading info from my blackberry as they were shutting the door of the plane.  I was able to save her social report and her photo, so I spent a chunk of the flight looking at those while trying to keep Oscar entertained.  For some reason he wasn’t as enthralled by these things as I was.

Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of activity sharing the great news, and of course accepting the referral.  I managed to snap and post a pic of Oscar in the t-shirt I ordered for him eons ago in a hope that a picture of him could serve to spread the word while I waited to formally accept.  That t-shirt, by the way, was designed and ordered in mid-September, when it looked like my referral was imminent.  It’s now almost too small for Oscar and traveled with us to Mexico and Oklahoma.  That’s how sure I was that I would get my referral before Christmas.  I was so certain I would not get a referral on this trip that it stayed in the closet.

I’ve decided that the next time that things get too stressful in this adoption we’re heading to Disneyland.  I promise not to complete that thought by making some schmaltzy reference to being the place where dreams come true.   Okay, I lied.

February 9, 2010 - Posted by Oscar and Etta's mom | Adoption, Ethiopia, referral