What's next now that we know our babies?

First off, we've been inundated and overwhelmed and obscenely blessed by the affection and affirmation we've received since Friday. There have been over 1500 hits to our blog since we posted the BIG NEWS. Wowowowowow! We are so grateful that our village is so verbal and supportive. Beyond grateful.

Brian signing the "child offered forms" on Thursday night.
His tattoo on his right arm says "redemption", which says it all.

I'm also so grateful that you have simply sat in the celebration of the moment without rushing us to share "what's next?". This is a moment worth partying and living in for a while!! But I know you're dying for the next steps and what the time line looks like. I'll do my best to explain AND share specific prayer requests.

Where are you in the process now? As of Friday, August 20th we accepted the referral for Lil' A and Baby T. We are pursuing adopting them into our forever family!

Are these really YOUR kids? Yes and No. We are pursuing adopting them, but anytime before the first court date our referral could fall through [for a variety of reasons on Ethiopia's side or ours]. Scary but reality. PRAYER REQUEST: that we would be able to adopt Lil' A and Baby T...that nothing falls through in the next few months.

What's next? An Ethiopian doctor will do a more extensive 2nd medical report on both kids. This will include blood tests, urine and stool tests, more measurements, and an general physical. Keep in mind that Ethiopia's medical care is 180th in the world, so our PRAYER REQUEST would be that these tests rule out any major medical issues. We are free to deny the referral at any point before the 1st court date if medical reports come back with issues we feel we cannot handle. This process could take up to several weeks to complete.

What happens after the 2nd medicals? FIRST COURT DATE :: After we accept the 2nd medicals, we submit for a court date in Ethiopia. Our BOLD PRAYER REQUEST would be that we could get an October 19th court date. That date would be 364 days after we got on the wait list. Our agency receives court dates for Tuesdays only. This would be when we take our first trip to Ethiopia and would be in country for 5-10 days. PRAYER REQUEST: that God would creatively supply the cost of the each trip [approximately $6000/trip or WAY less if someone offers us airline miles for one trip...the other trip has been provided for!]. If you know of someone who could bless us with these, let me know. After this court date, THEY ARE OFFICIALLY DIAZ'S!!!!!!

How long between the 1st court date and the 2nd trip? Anywhere from 4-8 weeks. This part of the process involves transferring paperwork to the US Embassy, getting their visas, and issuing their US Citizenship. This is not a court date but an Embassy date. After the Embassy date, we get to bring them home forever!!!

ULTIMATE PRAYER REQUEST:
Lil' A and Baby T will be home by the end of 2010!
This is very possible, but would require no delays, lost paperwork, medical issues, etc. Everything from this point on would have to go very smoothly.
Please pray home these little ones in 2010!!!

A painting my friend, Erin, designed a year ago for a prayer/donation shower that our small group threw for us. It's in the kids' bathroom now.

ADDITIONAL PRAYER REQUESTS:

• God would protect our babies health and hearts and prepare them in every way to come home. This period is critical for their transition.
  
• God would nurture and nourish them body, mind, and spirit, especially through their nutrition and caregivers at the orphanage.
• God would prepare Brian and me to become THEIR parents - not just parents but Lil' A and Baby T's parents. That God would supernaturally speak to us about their needs, wounds, and personalities.
• God would provide the finances for this last stretch of the adoption journey. We've seen him supernaturally provide up until this point, and believe in his provision. Our parenting expenses haven't even started [like most natural families].
  

Referral Day!

For those of you who didn't get enough details on the first couple blog posts about the BIG DAY, here are more...I woke up on Monday morning not thinking about getting THE CALL today. I had just posted on the joys of Mondays, but it didn't cross my mind. I had just finished a very sweaty workout at 9:25am and was checking email. At 9:35am my phone rang and "Christian World Adoption" was the caller ID. I gasped and my heart skipped a couple beats. Honestly, I was bracing myself that they were calling for another reason, not THE reason. I answered and was told about these 2 little ones the mostly matched our preferences, and asked if we would like to receive their info [1st medical reports, bio info, and pictures]. I gasped out - "YES!" After a whirlwind 15-minute phone call and taking copious notes on my laptop, our case manager said she was sending us 3 emails: 1 for each kiddo and 1 with all the legal paperwork.

The only other time I've had a conversation I can barely remember because of joyful emotional emotional is when Brian proposed to me on December 18, 2000. In one moment while talking with our case manager, I thought, "this is just how I felt when Brian proposed to me!!!" Life-changing. Overwhelming love. Deep peace. Heart racing like crazy! Sense of THIS IS IT!!!

I hung up the phone and LITERALLY started wailing on my knees in what will be the kiddo's bedroom [currently our workout room]. Friends, it was a few steps beyond ugly crying. I was out of control - almost hyperventilating. Dripping sweat. Tears flying out my eyes nearly horizontally. Mouth contorting between crying and laughing. But I knew that I had to call Brian immediately because the emails were being sent to both our accounts. I pulled it together, took some deep breaths, and called him. He answered and I managed to ask him if he was alone [he wasn't] and told him to get alone now [he complied because he thought I wanted to tell him something else]. When he said, "Ok, I'm alone." I said/screamed/wailed out something like, "Babe, we got our referral." He kind of understood me but repeated it to make sure. Brian said that was when he started crying - when he could hear me say "YES!"

We feverishly opened up our 2 laptops and the 3 emails were waiting. The first email was sent at 9:48 for Lil' A. With over 2000 miles separating us, we opened up the email at the exact same time and looked at his pictures together and documents. I sobbed. Brian calmly but enthusiastically and JOYFULLY commented on our future son. We were in awe. We spent a LONG time going through every little detail of his pictures and documents.

Then, we opened up the email sent at 9:50 for Baby T. It was the same experience for her. There were so many "oh my gosh", "she's so beautiful", "look at our baby girl", "she looks SO healthy" comments. We instantly knew we wanted to say "YES" to their referral. So after over an hour on the phone together [I wonder what Brian's mom was thinking with him disappearing that long!?!?] we decided that our strategic communication plan didn't really apply until Brian was home. So, we decided that Monday we would ONLY tell our immediate family the news. Brian was headed over to his sister's house with his mom and he would tell them together. I got off the phone, took a breather, and called my mom.

Before Brian left for Indiana to be with his family, we actually talked and prayed about getting the call while he was gone. Of course, we would've LOVED to have been together, but it felt like if he was with his family that our call could be really special for him to share with his family, too. He got to share LIVE with his mom & dad, sister, bro-in-law, and my sweet nephew and niece. Their reaction alone was worth it!

My mom couldn't even understand me when I said we got the referral because I was sobbing again, which caused her to start sobbing. She said, "Ape, did you get your referral? Just say 'yes' or 'no'!" I cried "yes! yes! yes! yes!" We just cried for a few minutes. We talked for almost an hour. Such a sweet phone call.

It's hard to remember the progression of the rest of the day, but it was filled with countless phone calls and texts to/from Brian, calls with his family, conversations with my 2 brothers and sister-in-law, and grandparents. My brother, Matt, was wearing his Ethiopian Uncle "ah-got" t-shirt that we gave him for his birthday. He's convinced we got the call because he wore his shirt that day. He also wanted to be mentioned on a blog post. Here ya go, Fats! Every phone call was filled with tears and laughter and celebration of their apparent good health. My cell phone was drained twice during the day because I spent over 6 hours on the phone that day. Needless to say, I barely worked that day. I didn't even get a shower from my sweaty workout until 4:30 [mere prep for motherhood, I guess]. And I realized that I didn't eat anything that day. So, I finally celebrated with this...

I think I went to bed at 9:00pm out of sheer emotional exhaustion. My eyes were swollen and burning. My body felt like I'd run a marathon [a reality I will never have!]. But my heart was beyond full and grateful. I wrote our babies a letter before I fell asleep so one day I could share with them what happened on the day I saw their faces for the first time. And then, I fell into sweet dreams...eager to pick up Brian from the airport the next morning at 9:30am. 24 hours is all we had to wait to see each other after seeing their faces. What a GOOD day!!! The best is yet to come...

**One more post tomorrow on what the next steps
and time line look like for getting these babies home!

Lil' A and Baby T

Can I just first say how beautiful our kiddos are?!?!?! We are in LOVE!!! Ever since I was a little girl I wondered if when I first saw my children if I would think they are cute or if I would think "I'm gonna need to grow into this?" Crazy, I know, but it's just what I thought. Alas, I thought they were both GORGEOUS the moment I laid eyes on them. I couldn't get over their eyes and lips and hair...every part of their bodies melted me. I've looked at their pictures obsessively and each time I'm in awe at their beauty - external and inner.

ANSWERED PRAYERS ::

• It's amazing because all along, our biggest prayer has been for boy under 3, girl under 1. God answered!!!!! We were open to a LOT of other combinations, but God knew our heart and chose who was best for us to parent. We are overwhelmed at how God's attentive to the details of our heart.
• Our 2 kiddos are in the same orphanage - they didn't have to be, but they are. And it seems that they are in the same orphanage as my blog friends' 2 little ones who submitted their dossier on the same day!!!
  
• They are from the same region of Ethiopia.
  
• Remember how I asked you all to pray for our referral by our anniversary [August 5th] or my birthday [August 9th]? Well, all the pictures we have of them are taken during that window.

God knows and remembers...

LITTLE BOY A :: We saw his pictures first. We have 13 pictures of him, including a picture of him with his birth mom. He has enormous, almond shaped eyes. Luscious full lips. His 2 front teeth remind me of Chiclets. He looks peaceful, shy, and sweet. There are a couple pictures where he has shoes on his feet and he looks a little off-kilter wearing shoes for the first time in his life. His skin is like coffee with creamer! Soooooo cute! He'll be a heart-breaker. We ooooh-ed and ahhh-ed forever looking at his pictures for the first time.

BABY GIRL T :: Next, we opened the pictures of her, and I think that's when I lost it again. We have 6 pictures of her from every angle, mainly just in her diaper. I was so overwhelmed looking at Little A that I finally tipped over when I saw her pictures. She is long and chubby and all kinds of adorable. Her lips are to DIE FOR. The first thing I said to Brian about her is that "I want to suck her lips off - they are so beautiful!" Brian thought I was crazy! She is perfectly in track on the growth chart and developmentally - miraculous. She has chubs all over her little body. Her eyes are gigantic [they look like Brian's, according to my mom], very bright and alert. Her hair looks silky and oh-so curly. She's holding herself up on her tummy. She looks strong and is looking straight at the camera in every picture. Her skin is almost exactly the same coffee color as Little Boy A's. Seriously, she's drop dead gorgeous!

THEIR NAMES: Until our adoption is official - after our 1st trip to Ethiopia - we are going to call them by their birth name. WHY? 2 reasons:

• We want to do so as a way to honor their birth mother and the reason she named them what she did. We are still strongly considering keeping their birth names as a middle name. Their birth names are filled with meaning!
  
• We will not rename them until they are legally ours. We have had Amharic/Ethiopian names picked out for them for a year, and want to protect those names in case our referral would fall through [Dear God - I hope not!!!!!].
  

PRIVACY IN THEIR STORIES: We are not sharing either of their stories at this point. It's too personal and tender, especially at this point in the process. I already feel a tremendous amount of protectiveness about their little lives and stories. This week I've simply found myself praying for their spirit and those they left behind.

Even as I write about them, there are tears. I can't believe that I get to be their momma, God willing. Please be praying for their continued development, health, that our process continues smoothly and without delay, and that they get to come home before the end of 2010.

AGAIN, please comment here so we can savor your words with our kiddos in the months to come!

**More posts to come this weekend about the day we got the call and what next steps are in front of us, including a time line and prayer requests...