Referralversary

It's hard to believe that two years ago today we got the call of a lifetime. The two years since knowing their faces have flown by in comparison to the years we waited and I can honestly say that they have been the best two years of my life.

Last year on this day I pulled out the photo albums and spent some time telling the boys about this day and about their story. Frankly, they seemed to care less last year. This year their faces lit up when I told them how I felt that day, and they loved looking at the pictures. Here are some of the first pictures we ever saw of our beautiful boys.

December 2009


We couldn't believe how healthy and handsome they looked. Two years later I think that even more when I look into their shining faces.

December 2011

They have the hearts, brains and personalities to match those good looks and I am so lucky to be their Momma. 

Happy Referral Day, Boys! You have blessed our lives beyond measure!

Life after “The Call” and What’s Next

Whew! What a week! My feet are definitely still ten feet off the ground! I had been told that all the waiting would melt into the background once we saw their faces but I wasn’t so sure I believed it, especially toward the end. Well, it's true. All the waiting seems like nothing now and these beautiful little boys were worth every single second! I also have to thank God that Gladney asked us to increase our age range and that we had the presence of mind to say yes. It is so hard to have blind faith sometimes but amazing to see it all coming together now. These boys could not be more perfect for our family!

This past week was one of the happiest weeks of my entire life but in some ways it was also one of the hardest. Not only was I away from home but the meetings that I had to attend started very early in the morning and ended after dinner. I had little time to myself and the work was intense, requiring my concentration, so when email after email after comment after facebook message after phone call kept pouring in, all I could do was try to ignore this explosion of love and happiness and hold in the tears of joy that kept threatening to spill forth in the most inappropriate of settings!

I have finally caught up on all your messages and let me say now what I couldn’t say then:

Thank you all so very much for your kind words and well wishes! Your happiness for us has heightened our joy and we appreciate it so very much!

If I haven't responded to you individually, please forgive me and just know that your support means so much to us.

On Friday night Mark and I made up for lost time by celebrating with a vengeance. We plastered 8 X 10 printouts of the boys to the fridge. We drank champagne. We cried tears of joy and also tears of sorrow for all that our boys and their birth family have been through. We talked excitedly and incessantly about how amazing and beautiful and amazing and beautiful these boys are. We cooked and ate more of this…

Mesir Wat

And this…

Yetakelt W'et

Yesterday we did a little shopping. More tears of joy happened in the parking lots of Baby Gap and Toys-R-Us as the realization that we finally knew who we were shopping for hit me square in the chest! We are excited to be sending care packages to Ethiopia in a couple days with our wait list buddies, Beka and Mika. Also traveling this week are Rebecca and Corrie and Jess. Everyone promises to snap a few pictures and dole out some love to our little ones! I have spent many, many months on the wait list with these ladies and, in spite of my delayed graduation, I think of them as my graduating class since most of us went on the wait list around the same time. Though I have never met them in person, we have shared so much that I feel I know them and they me. I am grateful to have these women in my life and so excited for them to meet the twins and to bring their own children home!!

Here’s what we wish we could send to the boys…

But no one had enough room in their suitcase, ha! So here’s what we narrowed it down to…

Going with Mika are matching soft snuggly jammies and two awesome little trucks! (No, I do not plan to dress them alike most of the time, but I just couldn't resist!)

Going with Beka are soft snuggly horses purchased on the Denver trip, and cloth photo albums with pictures of us, the dogs, the house, etc. to help the boys get used to the idea of their new family. ***Many of you have asked where to purchase these photo books. I bought them at One Step Ahead almost a year ago and I am sorry to say that they have since been discontinued.

Until we can get these guys home and in our arms, this will have to do. We have every bit of faith in our agency and we know that they are being well cared for in the meantime.

OK, so what’s next and when do we get them home, you ask?

Our paperwork has been submitted to the court system in Ethiopia and now we are waiting - yes, more waiting - for a court date. There are many other families with our agency, and with other agencies, that are in the queue ahead of us so this can take time and how much time varies from case to case and month to month. During our time on the wait list we have seen families wait as much as eight months and as little as two weeks for a date. Our agency is estimating the current average wait times to be about one to two months, which is a recent change in our favor, and hopefully good news for us!

Once we are assigned a court date, the actual court appointment is typically scheduled up to one month out. Our agency takes care of all the legal proceedings on our behalf so we won't travel during this stage. Some families sail through court on the first try, while others have to go back for multiple tries. There are several reasons why a family might not pass the first time but it is a buzz kill to think about all that right now so I will write more later.

After we pass court, we will travel to Ethiopia to pick up our boys!! Our travel date will depend on when our visa appointment is scheduled with the US Embassy in Addis Ababa. Travel is typically 2-6 weeks after passing court.

So, if you add up the individual pieces, you get an average wait of 2 to 5 months to get them home. As many of you know, we have not exactly had the smoothest journey so far. Record breaking has been more our style than falling within averages but we are super hopeful that this stage of the journey will be smoother. If you are the praying kind, please pray, or cross fingers or send hopes and vibes...we are doing all of the above in hopes that we can get these guys home quickly!

Thank you again for all your well wishes. We are grateful for the support you have shown to us and our sweet little Ethiopian twins!!

"There is no remedy for love but to love more." ~Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), Journal, July 25, 1839

AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was the day we finally saw their faces. They are the most beautiful faces I have ever seen. Faces that are almost identical, except for a tiny little scar on one beautiful chin and a teeny little mark on one completely smoochable neck.

They are twins!! 28 months old!! A boy and a boy!! Brothers who have had each other through everything. Brothers who will continue to have each other and who, God willing, will have us very soon!!

Everyone says that it happens when you least expect it but I honestly thought that was impossible. I have been thinking about this call for eighteen months and expecting it almost every minute of every day for the past FIVE. How on earth could it come when I didn't expect it?

Well, it did. Today was an unusual day because I had to leave for an out of town business trip. I procrastinated over the weekend and had a lot to do so I was at my desk working hard by 6 AM. Mid-morning I sent our case worker an email with my schedule for the week, having given up on getting the call that morning and knowing that I would be hard to reach over the next few days. Then I packed a suitcase and headed for the airport.

By the time I got to the airport I had stopped thinking about getting the call completely, since it was already past the time I told Kristin she could reach me. I had about an hour to kill so I popped over to Brookstone to look at their carry-on bags. We’ve had one for several years that we really like and have been thinking of getting another one before our trip to Ethiopia (just because I stopped thinking about the call doesn't mean I stopped thinking about our adoption!). I called Mark and asked him to order it online so I wouldn’t have to drag it all the way to Denver and back. Then I walked over to the security line.

Just before taking my shoes off I looked at my Blackberry and saw an email from Kristin. I didn’t get excited. We’ve been emailing a lot over the past few weeks and I figured it was just her reply to my earlier email. But when I opened the message my eyes flew to the words:

“...your referral is READY” and “I think you are on a plane but call or email me if you get this...”

WHAAAAAT????

I didn’t even read the rest of the email. With tears streaming down my face and very shaky hands I somehow managed to type something like:

“NO I AM still HERE at the airpfrot for an hoiur call me!!!!”

Then I called Mark. That conversation went something like:

Mark: "Yeeees?" (Wondering why I was calling again since we had just hung up about the luggage.)
Me: "ARE YOU READY?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (Very high pitched and much too loud. Incidently, I have no idea why I choose those words.)
Mark: "Ready for what?" (Probably still thinking about the luggage and wondering if I had finally lost it completely.)
Me: Blubbering and crying now. Must have said something about the email and our referral being ready. In any event, he figured it out.
Mark: Laughing and laughing and then “Where are you?”
Me: "Just about to go through security. I’ve stepped to the side."
Mark: More laughing...
Me: Laughing too now...
Me: "Why are we laughing?"
Mark: Still laughing..."We can’t do anything the easy way, can we? We can’t even get our referral like normal people!"
Me: "I KNOW! Look, let me get through security and get some place where I can boot up my laptop. I have 45 minutes before my plane boards. Maybe she can at least send us a picture or two before I get on the plane!"

Somehow I made it through security. The guard had to stop me first because I tried to walk through while responding to Mark’s text message telling me to hurry, then because I forgot to take off my sweater (really don’t understand what sort of terrorist plot could start with a sweater but ok) and then because my bracelets set off the alarm. SHEESH! Finally I got to the bench where you put your shoes back on and even before putting my shoes on I called Kristin.


Voicemail


Managed to put my shoes on and not forget any of my belongings. Then I walked over and sat down at gate C4. Realized that my gate was actually C14. Started high tailing it to C14 all the while trying to respond to several text messages from Mark and forward him the original email from Kristin. Somehow I made it to my gate without running anyone over in the process. I am sure I looked like a complete and utter lunatic.

There were about a million people in the waiting area but I found a seat in a corner way off to the side. Took a deep breath. Decided to read Kristin’s email in its entirety and started booting up my laptop. Then I called Kristin again.


Voicemail


So I called Mark instead and we just sat there laughing and crying and staring at our email inboxes hoping something would appear. I sent Kristin another email (poor Kristin!). Then after about 15 minutes we decided to hang up so that we wouldn’t waste our batteries. I think I called Kristin another 3 or 4 times, each time getting voicemail (POOR Kristin!!). The flight attendants started pre-boarding and I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to WAIT until I got to Denver. Before shutting down I decided to try calling one last time and there was Kristin’s sweet voice on the other end saying:


“Heidi?!!!! Can I send you an email? Wait till you see them, they are so precious!!!”


Oh my heart! I managed to open her email but then she started telling me their names and my brain turned to complete mush. I just sat there dumbfounded, having completely forgotten how to download an attachment. Really, for the life of me I couldn’t remember how to access the pictures (did I ever mention that I work for a SOFTWARE COMPANY?! Technology is kind of my THING!). Kristin kept saying, "Have you opened them yet?", which somehow snapped me to and then there they were! Two precious little boys. Looking more beautiful, and sweeter, and cuter, and funnier, and chubbier and sweeter, and more beautiful then I ever imagined! There they were smiling, and waving, and running, and wiggling around on the ground like little rascals! Be still my heart!

I really needed to get on my plane so Kristin agreed to call us tonight with the rest of the referral information after she puts her own children to bed (POOR WONDERFUL KRISTIN!!). I called Mark briefly so I could tell him how to pronounce their names and hear how happy he sounded. As I was walking onto the plane I emailed a few pictures to my mother. She called me in tears just as I got to my seat and we had a couple minutes to cry and rejoice together before they made me turn my phone off.

I wrote all of this while I was sitting on the plane, wishing I was celebrating with my family instead of squished into a tiny seat with a glass of apple juice, but at least I had the faces of my future sons to keep me company! I have looked at them about a thousand times already. Oh me, oh my, I am in love!!!!!!

P.S. For those who don't know, we aren't allowed to post pictures or their names on public internet sites until we pass court and they are legally our children (more to come on what that means). For now you will just have to take my word for it...they are gorgeous!!!