THE call!!! Monday, August 19th, 2013... the day we became a family of FOUR!!!

Wow, where to begin?!?!? My last post was announcing that on April 19th we found out that we had  FINALLY moved into the #1 spot on our wait list!!! Little did I know that it would be another 4 LONG months (to the day actually) that we would sit at number one and wonder every day, "Is today THE day?!". I'm not going to sugar coat it and tell you that it didn't suck, because it did, let's face it... the wait sucks, period! BUT I am here to tell you that God's strength, His grace, His love, His faithfulness- it's REAL and it's what has carried us day by day over the last four months of sitting at #1.

Here's the crazy amazing part of the wait.... it doesn't last forever (hang tight waiting mamas, YOUR day WILL come)!!! This past Monday, August 19th, at 12:18pm, our wait was OVER!!!! It gives me chills just to write that! After 4 months of sitting at #1... after 34 months of sitting on our agency wait list... after 40 months since starting the entire process... and after endless prayers, tears, and joy along the journey... we got THE call for our boy!!! For so long my heart has ached to just know who our son is, and it FINALLY happened!!! We saw our precious son's face for the very first time, we read through his story, and we cried tears of heartache and tears of joy. We are simply in awe of God's faithfulness to answer every single prayer we've cried out on our son's behalf for the past three years! God's timing and our timing we're clearly not on the same page... BUT it's with confidence that I say GOD'S TIMING IS PERFECT!!! We have the most precious, itty bitty Ethiopian boy, who has completely captured our hearts! God's hands have been all over this journey from the very beginning! This is God's beautiful story, that we are just privileged to play a small role in (and pray that we don't mess it up somehow, ha!). 

Here is our itty bitty Isa, born July 17th, 2013, all 6.5 pounds of him! We can't show his face online before he is legally ours, but trust me when I say that under this little heart is complete cuteness!!!

 

 

 Here's just a glimpse into the goodness of Monday...
 
Right before we got THE call on Monday, I was taking a few first grade "back to school" pics of Jude before meeting daddy on his lunch break at Chick-fil-a. The game plan was to take a few more photos after lunch since I was only able to squeeze in a few that morning. We had a great lunch with daddy and were pulling out of the Chick-fil-a parking lot, all the while Jude was informing me of his dislike of my plan to take more pictures (what?! 6 year old boys don't like to pose and stand still for photos?!) He simply wanted to go home and play, fair enough! He made the snarky comment, "We haven't even taken a family picture in forever, so why do I just have to do it?!" to which I replied, "Because we're waiting until Isa is home before we take another family pic" (this has just been my weird emotional hang up since last Christmas- I'm tired of taking pics with one child missing in the photo). Anyway, this response triggers Jude to say, "I bet you're going to scream when we get THE call for Isa! You're probably going to cry too, right mom?!" to which I sighed, "You're probably right... you know, I don't know how the heck I'm react when we finally get the call?!" At that EXACT MOMENT as I said the word "call"... my phone rang!!! No joke!!! BUT it didn't ring the programmed ring I have for our case worker, she must have called from a different phone in the agency office (dang my brilliant plan to have an awesome ring tone go off!). But I KNEW it was her because it said Portland Oregon, and NOBODY else calls me from there! I immediately screamed, "Jude! I think THIS IS IT?!?!?!?" and him clearly not catching on that I was actually talking about the phone ringing right that moment, proceeds to say, "Yeah, I really do bet you'll scream and cry when we get the call" While driving, I turn back and look him dead in the eyes, and in my crazy frantic voice yell, "NO! I MEAN... I THINK IT'S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?!?!? OH MY GOSH JUDE!!! AHHHH! I'M SCARED TO ANSWER!" That's right folks,  I completely froze for a second in fear that somehow I was going to mess up this call or that it wouldn't actually be our referral! Thankfully I quickly snapped out of it and ever so slowly slid the answer button over on my phone and cautiously said, "Hello?" in the most curious tone ever. To which I was relieved to hear our case worker's voice on the other end. She asked me how I was doing and instead of answering her I just said, "How are YOU doing?!"... she chuckled and said, "Well... I'm doing REALLY well, and I'm REALLY excited to talk with you about an itty bitty boy!!!!".... to which I mumbled out, "Wait?! You're EXCITED?! If you're excited that means I can be excited!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!!" At this point, Jude's prediction of screaming and crying completely came true!!! He actually said, "See! I knew you would cry mama!" The flood gates opened, I started screaming and telling Jude he was a big brother! I can only imagine our case worker sitting in her office holding the phone at an arms length away from her face in order to not blow out her eardrums! Finally I calmed myself down enough for her to tell me that Joshua and I both needed to be in front of a computer, together if possible and she asked me if we would be able to do that. Since I had literally left Joshua from lunch not 2 minutes earlier, he was headed back to his teacher training thing, and I wanted to catch him before he got in his next meeting. I told her I would call him right away and we'd make it happen! I hung up with her and in record speed called Joshua (this is all while I'm driving mind you... I have no idea how I got home that day! I'm pretty sure angels had the steering wheel!). Joshua answers the phone, "Yeah?" with the hurried tone of "Why are you calling me already, I JUST saw you?!" (classic) I just start screaming, "WE HAVE A BOY, WE HAVE A BOY, WE HAVE A BOY!!!". He said, "Are you kidding?!", confused that within just a couple minutes we had gotten THE call. I reassured him it was NO JOKE and that he need to get home so we could see our son's face!!! He hurried to school, and one perk to having been in this adoption process for three stinking years is, EVERYBODY knows! The lady he had to get approval from gladly sent him home with her blessings! Jude and I made it home and as I waiting on Joshua to get home, I hurried and called my family and some close friends just to let them know IT WAS ACTUALLY HAPPENING, we were about to find out who are son was!!! Jude stood there in the living room and watched me cry tears of joy. He's my tender-hearted little guy, so he kept saying, "These are all happy tears, right mom?" and I reassured him that all the tears he would see over the next week would be HAPPY TEARS. The garage door opened and in walked my best friend, the man I've been blessed to walk this journey with. There were no words spoken. Just tears. Lots of tears as we embraced each other. Joshua's poor shirt got my snot and tears all over the shoulder. (o: And in the middle of sniffles, we hear Jude say, "Mom's been crying a lot- but don't worry dad, they're happy tears! It's time for a family hug!". Best moment ever!

And the rest of the story is for another day! Oh such a crazy wonderful day that I will remember for the rest of my life! I LOVE that Jude and I experienced THE call together at the exact moment we were talking about actually getting the call! It's just crazy to me! We will forever share that moment together and it fills my heart to overflowing! Jude is truly going to be the best big brother Isa could ask for! He has prayed for his brother now for three years, every single night! Isa buddy, Jude has been looking out for you for a long time and he promises to continue to look out for you for the rest of your life! Little did Jude know when I snapped this pic, less than an hour later he would be a big brother!!!