September 9, 2010 - Angie and her good friend Tiffany were on their way to an orphan care and adoption conference in Nashville. I was in the middle of a busy week getting ready for our big Fall kick-off at church. At around 10:00 am (while I was working with Scott on some things in our church's auditorium) my phone rang and it was the call that would change our lives.
On the other end of the line, Angie's unusually inflected voice told me that Ben (our social worker) had called and wanted to know if we could be conferenced together for some "important news." Somewhere in the middle of Illinois, the girls pulled off the highway into a Subway parking lot so that Angie and I could get some of the best news of our lives thus far.
During the conversation, Ben informed us thad we had received a referral - a beautiful little boy named Temesgen Abebe who (at the time) was five months old. Ben shared as much information as was available regarding the little boy who would become our son. Mostly were were in shock, but we had several questions. Notably, "what now?" He answered all of our questions, then sent us the long-awaited email with all of the information and this tiny little picture that will be forever etched in our minds.
Because Angie and I weren't together, she ran over to an adjacent hotel lobby where she could logon to wireless internet and download the referral information. Even though we were hundreds of miles apart, we wanted to see his picture simultaneously and opened the email at the same time. It was magical and the rest, as they say, is now history.
The first person I saw here at church was Scott (our Arts Ministry Associate) who gave me a big hug and congratulated me. Then I made my way back toward the main lobby where I ran into Jill (our Children's Ministry Director and Angie's overseer). When I exclaimed, "it's a BOY!" she screamed (loudly) which made Maria (our Connections Ministry Associate) come barreling around the corner to make sure everything was ok. Suffice it to say that news spread quickly and there was a lot of elation in those moments.
Angie and I spent a lot of time on the phone that weekend, processing through it all and dealing with the incredibly unusual emotions of having received the referral after SO long while laughing at the irony of it coming on one of the rare occasions when we're not together. I can't even tell you how many tears of joy we shed that weekend. I must have looked at his picture a thousand times and cried and cried and cried.
September 9, 2011 - Looking back on it now, it's all fairly surreal. There's an amazing little boy living in our home that calls us "Mama" and "Daddeeeeeeeee." He amazes us every day with all of the things he's learning. He waves and blows kisses at Grandmas and Grandpas through FaceTime on our iPad and loves to dance any time music is playing.
It's fun to be a family. Happy referralversary to us.
