The Referral

A year ago today, we received the phone call that changed our lives for ever..... 

On July 23, 2010 at 12:20pm (yes, I remember the exact time) Jim and I got a call from our case manager.  He told us that we had been matched up with 2 little boys from Ethiopia (a year later, I still have the voicemail on my phone and listen to it all the time). 

As usual though, something has to always happen to me.....  I had been carrying my phone like it was permanently attached to me every day, every where for every minute.  It had been a year since we had started the process, so every day I told myself this might be the day we get the call.   OF COURSE, on this day I walked over to the cafeteria at work and what did I leave on my desk????  MY PHONE!!!!  When I returned to my desk I had 5 missed calls from Jim, a text saying "Call me 911" and a voice mail which I assumed was from him......   I called Jim and when he answered he didn't say hello.  He said, "2 boys".    BOZO ME says, "What are you talking about?"  He said, "Ben called, 2 boys."  At that moment things clicked and I went crazy........we conference called our case manager and he went through all the details.  We had been matched with 2 boys ( 2 year old and 3 1/2 year old).  He was sending us an email with pictures so we can see them and we had a week to go through the information and accept the referral......

So we get the email and on the count of 3, Jim and I open it at the same time (I'm at work and he is at home), this is the first picture we saw of our 2 boys named Addisu and Altesa Asefa.....

Immediately, I started crying (I'm crying now as I type too.....can't help it).  These 2 were the most beautiful little boys I had ever seen and they were ours.......One week to accept the referral, who are you kidding as soon as you open the pictures, you fall in love and just know those are your kids.  But of course we did the due diligence to make sure everything was OK.  We accepted the referral in our hearts, the instant we saw them and accepted the referral formally via paperwork a few days later.

Fast forward to today and this picture of Jayson Addisu and Jordan Altesa......amazing the difference a year makes!  :)