We got the call on Monday afternoon, August 20th. What is crazy is I had just emailed Kristin that morning asking her if they were giving out referrals during court closure. I also told her "I am starting to bum out" :).
I was driving home from some errands with all my children when she called. I saw the 817 number and honestly it took me a moment for it to register who it could be! So I answer the phone and it was Kristen. I still at this point was not sure if she was calling with a referral because I had just emailed her that morning! She starts in and says that she got my email this morning and that there will be referrals during court closure. I was relieved to hear that, at the same time I wondered why she called instead of emailing me back. So after she explained all that, she said "but I have your referral for you today!" I think she liked throwing me off there for a minute! I mean what are the odds I would email her the exact same day she had our referral? I hardly ever email her, so this was just plain cool! I honestly didn't think our referral would be soon because there were some above us on the list and there had just been a referral 4 days before ours. Since they have been giving out only a few a month, I wasn't expecting ours still for a few months.
So as soon as she told me this life altering news, I immediately started freaking out, I could not function!! I was driving and shaky at best, luckily I was only a few minutes from home. She told me her name and her age and then I got off the phone. Some of you may know I have been to Gladney twice in the last year while I was in Africa and had met most of the children in the care centers. So I was trying to recall "A" in my mind. I had a few pictured that I thought may be her. Anyways, immediately I called Ben, who actually picked up his phone! I told him we have a referral and I think he thought I was playing a joke on him. It took me a few minutes to convince him! Ben had a meeting shortly after I called so we decided to conference call Kristin back. The kids had no clue what was going on, I told them if they played quietly in their rooms, I would have a big surprise for them! Honestly it was a blur, I really don't remember a lot of the conversation. I think because the first email she sent was a bunch of pictures of little "A". I could not think of anything else after that. She is, well, quite simply, unbelievable! We couldn't speak, she is mesmerizing! She has a smile that brightens up the room! Her spirit and personality came through the pictures as well, she is pure sunshine! The crazy thing is, the two times I had been to Gladney, I do not remember seeing her!
Krisitn proceeded after the pictures to walk us through a lot of information, like I said this part was a blur and my emotions were all over the place, so I read through the material later. Gladney does a great job of giving you all the information they could possibly find, it is very thorough. For those waiting, be encouraged that even though the wait is brutal, because Gladney is so accurate, court and embassy should be a breeze. We then told our other three children, who were all equally thrilled! Especially my daughter who is excited about having a sister. :)
The next steps are to wait for a court date, the courts are closed in Ethiopia until Oct. 10, so we will not get a court date until after the courts reopen. We are praying for a court date soon after they open. We hope to be able to go to court in November sometime. After a family passes court they wait for the embassy to grant the child a visa. This has been taking 6-8 weeks. We are hoping if we go to court in November, we can bring her home sometime in January. This is probably best case scenario. It could be in February or later before she is home. We are trusting the Lord with His timing! We will wait on the Lord! Thank you all for your kind comments and messages. We are overjoyed!
