So what happens after THE CALL?

I did have the peace of mind to get out a pen and paper and write down much of what my case-worker told me on the phone about our son. But once the dust had settled I began to wonder "what comes next?" and realized I had no idea. :)

THE DAZE: Well, I must admit I was in a complete adrenalin-induced daze! I remember when Morgan (my oldest) was born around midnight and I don't think I slept at all that night. My mind was racing re-living every moment of that spectacular day trying to burn it all into my brain so I would never forget how wonderful it was. Getting THE CALL was the same way. Overwhelming relief mixed with unspeakable joy! I didn't think I would sleep at all Tuesday night after seeing Evan's face for the first time. Can you even imagine how strange it is to scroll down an email to see your new son's face? The face you've been dreaming of for over a year? Well I did sleep, I completely crashed about 11:30 pm, total exhaustion.

THE PACKET: The agency overnights a package of papers to fill out to accept the referral. Ours went to our old address--one of the joys of moving so often, so they had to send another one. The packet is pretty simple, lots of repeats of forms we have done before, or at least very similar. I have filled out the writing portion and we will take them to the bank tomorrow to be notarized and get them in the mail. Only one form is dependent on someone else and that is the one our social worker must sign and mail in so let's pray that she is fast with that. My understanding is that these papers are all for the agency though and won't slow down anything happening in Ethiopia which is where all the REALLY important stuff is happening right now!

THE DOCTOR: We emailed all the referral info to our international pediatrician so she could decipher the reports, tests, and most of all--the handwriting of the Ethiopian docs. She called on Wednesday afternoon and reviewed everything with Rusty. At the end she asked "any questions?" and Rusty looks down at his one inch post-it note where he has scratched out "HIV, Hep A, Hep B, parasites" and says "uh, no, but I think my wife might have some" :) Men just don't take notes like women huh?! So she offered to call me back later that night to discuss. The bottom line was she didn't have any real concerns and said "he's a keeper!" which we already knew! What a relief and an answered prayer not to have to labor over any health concerns.

THE ACCEPTANCE: Once we talked with the Dr. I called Julie (our CW) to let her know that we were accepting the referral and she said she would get in touch with the director at Hannah's Hope (our agency transition home where Evan is now) to begin to translate and authenticate our documents. They will blend Evan's file with our file to go to the appropriate legal offices. It could be a few weeks before we hear about our court date. Our prayer is to have a successful court date in February and travel in March.

THE CONFERENCE CALL: Next was an hour long conference call with the agency's adoption educator to discuss behavior, attachment, sleep issues...etc. This call was helpful in filling out some of the papers in the packet so I would recommend taking the call ASAP after your referral. It was similar to the things we learned during the education portion of the dossier.