IT'S A BOY!!!!

We got "the call." I just can't even believe it! We got "THE call!" AHHHHhhhhhh!!! We have a baby boy!! BABY BOY BISHOP!!! A 4 month old, tiny baby boy!!! I know that everyone is waiting to hear all about the details so I'll get to them. ;)

       

About 5:00 pm, Jason had decided to go to the Lumber yard to get some wood for the cornice boards we were going to be putting up in the baby's room. I was pouting because "I wanted to do something for the baby's room." I refused to paint until we had a referral, but there had to be something constructive I could do with my time. Jason left. About 5:15, the phones rings. Micala brought the phone to me and said, "All God's Children." Here is the glory people...I rolled my eyes and was kind of disgusted. I had recently sent our case worker "B" and email requesting for her to NOT call us for our January check in call. I didn't want the heart attack thinking it was the real thing and having it end up being a check in call. She was chit chatty like normal. Then she said something. Seriously she was so excited, I don't know what she said. Oh my gosh! This is it! Okay just that day I decided to settle in for the long haul. I asked B at what point Jason was to get involved. She said anytime. Well, he wasn't home. He was at the Lumber yard (remember?) I called him and said that B had called and we needed to call her back. He got home in record time! :) Funny thing..Jason has had a cell phone for about a week. We weren't going to pay for him to have his own b/c we didn't feel it was worth the money. Micala was told that if she got on the A Honor Roll, we would get her a cell phone. Poor kid has had to live until almost 14 to get a phone. ;) Sooo proud of her! So since we had 2 lines, it didn't cost that much to have the 3rd line. Great tming, huh!? So glad I was able to get Jason home as soon as possible. Micala was at the library and Lexi was playing at a friend's house. Jason called Micala on his way home and said to GET HOME and to call and get Lexi home. Micala's comment was, "I can't walk that fast!" Not that the girls had to be home, but I thought if it was possible, it would be nice. While I was waiting for Jason to get home, I called "K" who is right behind us on the list. I babbled a bit. She made me repeat it and then finally figured out what was going on. I'm sure it was confusing to her b/c I probably wasn't making sense telling her B had called and we needed to call her back as soon as Jason got home. Well...I tried. ;) Jason got home and we called B back. We had our hour long call going over every detail of our little man. Wow! Even at this point, we weren't feeling this was real. Keep in mind that it has been 23 months since our decision to adopt and 17+ months on the wait list. Now we finally see that face and hear all about him. Is this really happening????? I didn't react the way I thought I would. I think I'm pretty numb from all of it.


Jason was to be somewhere at 6:00 and I was to be somewhere at 7:00. It took until almost 6:30 to get our pictures. While we waited for the picture email to come, I posted on the AGCI list serve and the AGCI FB group. I know after waiting for so long, that people really wait to hear good news. Things have been pretty down in the referral world. I posted in these 2 places knowing that our AGCI family would be happy for us and they wouldn't tell our secret! Then we FINALLY got pictures. Oh my gosh! We got pictures of OUR little boy! Wow! We made a few phone calls. Jason went off to his destination and I went to mine. I had a fun meeting to go to. It was awesome b/c it was with some of my very close friends. I walked into church and said, "Who wants to see a picture of our baby?" I think they were in disbelief too, but so extremely happy. So cool! So fun! We continued to contact people via phone calls and texts. Finally I got to make it public on FB. It is fun to see everyone so happy for us.

A special note: We have dear friends in Sioux Falls that are adopting siblings from Ethiopia. Our families had dreamed about our kiddos being at HH together. They have already been to ET on trip #1. It hopefully won't be long before they go on trip #2 to bring their precious kiddos home. I was seriously bummed thinking our kids probably wouldn't be together at HH. Well, God does have big and amazing plans. These kiddos are all currently in Ethiopia at HH together. They will travel all across the world and live in South Dakota. It warms my heart to have this special connection. God sure blessed us with the S family.

What's next? Get this...paperwork!! We have contacted an International Pediatrican. She will have to review all of Y's medical paperwork and let us know if there is anything that is a red flag, etc...We have a transition plan to do. We have lots of other paperwork to do. The sooner we get this paperwork submitted, the sooner the head of HH can start working on getting stuff ready for court. It will be 3 months 'ish' before our first trip. Then we come home and go back in another month'ish' to be our baby home!!! Any questions? Just ask!!

We thank you so much for your prayers. This has been a hard, hard journey. It still can be tough as we long to hold this little one and have him home. At least know, we can rest knowing he is safe and being very well taken care of.  Please continue to pray for all people in all steps of this amazing journey. It isn't easy, but we know it will be so well worth it.