Submitted by Brandi. Read more of her experiences at Living Freely.
On June 27, Donna (from Acres of Hope) posted a comment on the yahoogroup for AoH families saying, ” For any of you families who are waiting on kids. You might want to consider a boy (smile) we have been getting in quite a few of them lately. Here is the lastest new kids waiting on referral.” Then she listed 7 kids with their names, birthdates and special needs.
There were 2 sibling groups and 2 children listed as special needs (neither of which we feel called to b/c of our toddlers at home and our lack of great medical insurance) and then another little one listed as: Henry - 07/05. Immediately, I was calculating in my mind. Brayden’s birthday is June of ‘04 and Gracie’s is March of ‘06.
We had been praying for a little boy right in between the 2. In fact, I had really been praying specifically for a little boy with a summer ‘05 birthday b/c then he would be exactly in between the 2! So, I emailed Donna pretty quick. I was just sure they had simply forgotten to list his special needs and if not I did not know if we were even eligible for a referral. We had sent in our application and had gotten most of our paperwork together and we just waiting for our homestudy to be completed before we sent in our dossier.
Well, Donna calls me back a couple of days later, “So, you’re interested in Henry?” Me: “Yes. . .can I be?. . . Does he have special needs and you just forgot to list them?. . . Am I eligible for a referral? . . . What do you know about him?” I’m pretty sure I said all of those things at once! Donna said that “no he doesn’t have any special needs”, “He’s the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen”, and 2 phrases that nearly knocked me over, “can you overnight me everything you have?” and “I’ll write your name down here right next to his until I get all your paperwork in.” Yes, that nearly threw me into a tizzy! I did not even know what that meant “I’ll write your name down next to his” did that mean he was ours???? So, I quickly worked to get it all done.
While we were at the movies later that day, I checked my email from my phone (which I did about 100 times a day for the next week hoping for something from Donna!) and she had emailed me. I noticed that there was an attachment and picture. Yes, I started freaking out! My phone won’t let me download attachments!!! aagh! The one thing I noticed right away was that the jpeg was named “henry davis”. Immediately I turned to Greg and said “that’s his name, his name will be Davis” Greg agreed immediately. As soon as the movie was over, we headed to our friends’, Ali and Ryan, house and checked our email. My eyes filled with tears instantly. My son! ooh, I’d been hoping he was cute! He sure is!!
Well, the next few days were a lot of waiting. . .and waiting. . .and learning patience. We decided to wait until the referral was official before showing him off. This was a hard lesson for me, b/c I like to share everything with everyone! The next week, the Lord taught me about waiting on Him and putting this little boy back in His hands constantly! (although, I think the next few months may be about REALLY learning that lesson some more!) I also didn’t really want to show people by email b/c I like to be there to see their faces. . .
Well, the next week on Thursday night at 11:30 I got an email from Donna saying, “yes, show your parents and I’ll call you soon to make it official”. I called immediately and woke both sets of parents up and told them to check their email while I was on the phone! So Fun! Still, though, I didn’t believe my own ears. . .so, the next morning I called Donna again to clarify “what you’re saying is that this is the boy you will refer to us as soon as you process all the paper work?” “Yes, consider this an Unofficial Referral!” YEAH!!
So, we begin to show his picture to everyone! I’ll admit, I did show the guy at Chick Fil A that day!!! Well, last night I got a call from Donna b/c she had new pictures taken on his birthday (see yesterday’s post). I said, “ok, you’ll call me tomorrow to make everything official, right?” Her response was music to my ears, “Girl, I already consider this official or I wouldn’t be sending you birthday pictures!” So now I can share him with the world!
Beautiful. Sweet. Tears.
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