It started out just like pretty much every morning since December 23rd, 2010 with a faint tummy flutter at the thought...could this be the day we see our next babe's face? But, like every other day since our "wait listed day", the feeling faded as I kicked off the covers in my not-a-morning-person-thank-you-very-much kind of way and went about our frantic morning routine. We actually got out of the house pretty early and I was feeling good about how we were starting the day until I walked with Camden into his daycare and noticed that he was the only one not wearing jammies. So, I left him there and drove like a maniac back home to get his jammies, brought them back to him, dropped Melia off at the back door of her school {since we were too late for me to walk her to class}, parked my van in my school's parking lot, and ran to the front door, narrowly missing stepping on a snake! Like I said, a bit Manic!
The rest of the morning calmed down a bit and I was just living life as an Intermediate School Counselor with one burning question in the back of my mind...could this be the day we see our next babe's face? But when 11:00 rolled around, then 12:00, then 1:00 {following an always-eventful hour of lunch duty}, I had pretty much resolved to the fact that it would be at least one more day before we got "the call."
Around 1:30 or so, a lady I work with {who is a fellow adoptive mama} asked how I was doing and I expressed that I was kinda down...that the adrenaline rush we experienced with the realization that we were #1 for a boy had really subsided and I was just doing "ok". She gave me some words of encouragement and we parted ways.
At 2:30, I headed down to a 4th grade class to give the "respectful girls respect themselves and each other" talk. The talk was going really well and we were making some real breakthroughs when I heard it...
"Mrs. Chase, please call the office" and then, even before I'd had a chance, "Mrs. Chase, your husband needs you to call him RIGHT NOW!" I gasped...I knew the time had finally come...this was the day we would see our next babe's face!
I ran frantically {in heels!} to my office and grabbed my cell phone. I had two missed calls...one from a 314 number and the other from Trevor and then I really knew! I called Trev back and he said the most beautiful words that have ever come out of his mouth {with the exception of "I do", of course! ;)} "We got the call."
I let him in the back door since he had driven over to my school and we ran back to my office where he called Nicky back and put her on speaker phone.
"Are you having a good day?" she asked. When we replied that we were, she said "Well, I'm about to make it even better! I have your referral!!" She proceeded to give us information and I wrote everything down through tears and shaking. The conversation was quick and we hung up with the promise that an E-mail was on its way. The E-mail seemed like it took FOREVER, but it was really probably just a couple of minutes. We called our parents and texted our friends and family while we waited to see his face.
And then, it happened...we saw our next babe's face! And it was amazing! And all the worry, frustration, anxiety, and tears melted away at this one glimpse of our baby boy's face. We instantly fell in love. The same way that we fell in love with our other two babies when we saw their sweet faces for the first time. The feeling that he was ours enveloped our whole beings and we {again} got to experience what I believe Christ must experience when we accept Him and He sees us as His own. There really are not sufficient words to describe that feeling!
And so, there it is...our referral story. The longest awaited story I've ever longed to tell. A story of Christ's grace and sufficiency in the lives of His humble servants. We are so blessed!
Coming up: What's next?!
