REFERRAL

Well, I think it is time to share the story of how our little guy came to us. We started the paper chase in January. We got our application filled out for the agency we used last time (international) and got all the documents that Stephanie (our local social worker and wonderful friend) needed to update our homestudy as well as a couple of visits. I haven't really thought too much about it all since we are busy with Olivia and living life. If you remember, I felt like my life was on hold for quite sometime until Olivia came home. So, I was at work on a Wednesday and my phone rang. (well, John's phone--we are down to one right now). It was Stephanie saying she had a little guy that we might be interested in. But here is the God part.....she was calling around to ask some Korea questions for another family that is interested in adoption. She googled a map of the closest agencies that work with them. The first one being the agency we used last time. So, she called them, but her 'go to' lady didn't answer. She looked at number two on the list, and they were unsure of the answers. So that led her to number three. A small agency called Dillon Southwest. They have 5 people in the office and give a limited number of referrals a year (according to a friend that has adopted with them). She asked her questions and the lady on the other end asked if she had any clients that were homestudy ready and interested in a little special needs guy with Eastern. We enter the picture. She immediately called us and then I called the lady at Dillon that afternoon. Dillon Southwest does not adopt special needs children to TN, so she had to check with Eastern in Korea to see if this was ok. We hadn't seen a picture at this point, but knew most of the information. Early Thursday morning, the lady from Dillon called and said that Korea said yes! She emailed us the referral information and we immediately got excited! Since we were both at work and down to one phone, I called John's school and pulled him out of class (2nd day in a row.) I told him to borrow a cell phone so we could look at the little guys picture together. So, he called and on the count of 3 we opened the document. There he was....our son. I will share at this point that he is 6 months old. He will be almost 2 by the time he comes home. We cannot wait to return to Korea!!!! Can I pack my bags now?? :)
John and I didn't get to talk in person until Sunday as I was leaving for the Created for Care conference Thursday afternoon. What a great weekend though to be with a bunch of mama's that 'get it.' The adoption world is hard, but they were all excited and cheering us on. I was able to talk to the international adoption doctor at Vanderbilt and another well known international adoption doctor. So, we are accepting his referral. So this week the paper chase has been getting everything ready in order to send an application to Dillon SW. I had it all in order by Wednesday, but our doctor had been out of town and hadn't filled out our physical reports. They then called and said this report needed another blood test. I now have that in hand and we are headed to the post office this morning! Acceptance papers coming next week, which means a ton of stuff to get together again---and then we wait. The big push for the fundraising came because of the referral. We have to send our first BIG check with the acceptance papers.