Progress

It has been four and a half months since we first heard about the twins. I was in the Philadelphia train station at the time, waiting to dial into a conference call. Just as I was about to dial, a call with our agency's area code came in. We had been waiting 11 months for our referral, a record with our agency as far as we could tell, so of course I answered it.

If you have been following for a while you might remember that we received a call before THE call. I didn't give a lot of detail about this call back then because nothing was certain, and I didn't think it was right to blog about it in case things fell through. This was that call. Our case worker wanted to tell me about 14 month old twin boys who might become available in a month or two, which would make them a couple months outside our age preference at time of referral. She wanted to know if we were interested in changing our age preference in order to pursue these boys.

I was so choked up when I heard "14 month old twin boys" that I could barely speak and "it's them!" kept running through my mind. You see, at the end of July last year, when we thought our referral would be any day, a good friend from Seattle came to visit. For kicks (or more likely to humor me as I was obsessed with getting the call at that point!) we wrote predictions on our chalk board. Months later, when we still did not have our referral, I erased those predictions in a moment of superstitious frustration, but I will never forget what I wrote.

"14 month old twin boys"

It wasn't a prediction. It was a wish, a prayer.

In the time that transpired between that call and our referral, the boys started to blossom. We weren't allowed to learn about their background or see pictures of them yet, but we were told that they were gaining weight. They started walking. They began speaking Amharic, which was not their first language. As these developments occurred, Gladney's doctor continued to monitor them, and to amend his age estimation. The boys went from 14 months to 19 months to 23 months to 28 months old in the two months it took to get our referral together. This was a difficult time for me, as I mourned the loss of all those months I thought I would have with them. We could have changed our minds at any point, waited for a match that was closer to or within our original age preference, but we felt deeply that these were our boys no matter their age. With a coincidence like the one mentioned above, you can probably see why! I often wonder how much divine intervention went into how all this played out, to help me get used to the idea of them being older than I initially planned.

The amazing thing, and one of the advantages of waiting a long time, is that I have had the chance to connect with many wonderful women. Lots of these women have since traveled to bring their own children home and they have taken pictures and videos of the boys for us. Someone at work the other day commented that I might have more pictures of these boys than he has of his own children, and he's probably right! We even have pictures of them all the way back to the very first day they arrived at Gladney's care center six months ago (thank you, Emily & Monique!) and every month in between (thank you all!). We know why they were initially thought to be 14 months old, and we have seen their remarkable growth and development unfold in front of our eyes thanks to these generous women.

The latest of these gifts arrived in my inbox on Thursday. It is a video of the boys taken by Gayla last week. The boys are hanging out, sitting in a chair with one of the care takers, wearing the outfits we sent over a few weeks ago. Since we can't post their names until they are legally ours, I will call them Dg and Dr. Dg looks content, Dr looks uncertain, as he often does on the days that families tour the care centers. Gayla comes in closer and Dg smiles up at her, starts to wave and then -- HE SPEAKS! Clear as day he says, "Hi, Mommy!", and then he says it again! Then Dr says it too, but quietly, almost a whisper.

"Hi, Mommy"

I nearly fell out of my chair the first time I heard it! They are just as we imagined - one outspoken, one soft spoken, both too precious for words. The sound of their voices is sweeter than I could have imagined.

I was in the Philadelphia train station again this week. I don't think I will ever be able to step foot in that building without a flood of memories. The memory of joining my conference call late but just in time for my portion of the call. The memory of being surprised at how calm and together I sounded in spite of the fact that I was pacing around that big room like a crazy person because an instant before, my life had completely changed. I called Mark while standing in line to board my train, surrounded by men in suits, blubbering the news into the phone (do we see a trend here?!).

These boys were a dream come true when we thought they were 14 months old, and they are our prayers answered at 31 months old. It still breaks my heart to be missing so many months of their lives, but I know that there is a lifetime ahead of us. In the meantime, I am so very grateful to Gladney for taking such good care of them, and to those of you who have made sure we aren't missing their amazing progress!

Hi, Babies. Mommy's coming...