For the past 4 years I have imagined what this day would be like and what I would write when it finally happened, but now that it is here I am so excited and so much in a daze that I can hardly think. Just shy of 3 days until our 33 month mark of being on the waiting list we got the call yesterday. It was the very last thing I expected to happen this week. I was talking to my mom on the phone before I had to get Eva ready and off to school when someone showed up on call waiting. I didn’t recognize the number, so I didn’t answer it. My mom got a call just after and had to get off the phone with me. I noticed I had a message so I checked it and it was Nicole, the head of the Philippine program at our agency looking to talk to me or Jason. I had the thought that it could be our referral but at the same time I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much. My heart was beating so fast as I called her back and I think I might have said to Eva as the phone was dialing that this might be our referral. Nicole answered right away and said she had some great news for us. Now my heart was about to jump out of my chest and my whole body was shaking. She said that she had a referral for us! It was for a 9 1/2 month old baby boy named Joshua. He is at White Cross Orphanage which is a Philippine run orphanage in the San Juan province of Manila. He has been in the orphanage since birth. He is a healthy, very smart, and happy little boy. He already took his first steps at 8 months old. His report said that he smiles a lot and is very attached to his caregivers, which means that it might be a rough start for us but that he will also become very attached to us. He does have a medical condition called G6PD which is very common in the Philippines. It is an enzyme deficiency that has something to do with oxidative stress interfering with Red Blood Cells and causing anemia. We have a list of foods and medications that he will not be able to have and as long as he avoids these, he won’t have any issues and will live a normal, healthy life.
I don’t really remember much else of what Nicole said to me after that. I was much too excited and had so many thoughts rushing through my head that it was very hard to concentrate. It’s a good thing she sent me all the info in an email as well. After I got off the phone with her Eva had already figured out that we had our referral, so I told her all about it and then immediately called Jason. I think he was just as much in shock as I was. We really were not expecting the referral to come this soon after everything we have been through and we were not expecting to get such a young child. I think he was excited but very stressed at the same time thinking about all the paperwork and all the money that we would be needing to pay with the acceptance of the referral. I made Eva promise not to tell anyone else until Breanna came home from school, so we could tell her together. I was hoping to have some good pictures of him to show her, so I could surprise her by showing them to her and then saying that was her new brother. Unfortunately, the photos we received were a very bad scan of the originals and were too dark to really see. We should be getting the originals by the end of the week, but I’m not sure if I can wait that long to see his precious little face. We did end up showing her the photos we had and then told her she had a brother. She was so excited! She was jumping up and down around the room and kept saying I can’t believe I have a baby brother! Both of the girls are so excited to be getting a brother.
Now we have a mountain of paperwork to fill out and then the wait begins for immigration to get his Visa so we can bring him home. This part of the process has been taking around 5 months, so it won’t be until Feb. or March that we will travel to the Philippines to pick him up. This means we will miss his first birthday, but we will be able to send him a package and also pictures of us so he can start to get to know us. I also learned that we might get to stay at his orphanage while we are in the Philippines. I don’t really know what else to say other than how happy and thankful I am that the wait is finally over and how lucky we are to be blessed with this sweet little boy that will soon be joining our family. I can’t wait for the day that I can hold him and squeeze him and love him all over!
Here are some pictures Breanna and Eva colored of Joshua that we used to surprise the grandparents:
The first Breanna drew of Jason with Breanna and Joshua(she said she didn’t have enough room to draw the whole family). We showed these first in an email and then followed up with this one:
