The BEST Anniversary Gift!

Today is our 11th wedding anniversary and yesterday we received an early gift. An unexpected gift. An amazing gift. A wonderful gift! A thrilling, life-changing, "Thank you, God", best-ever kind of gift! We received our referral! And we got to see our daughter's beautiful face for the first time! Aaah, you know you only get a few of these moments in an entire lifetime, so when they come, they bring me to my knees in overwhelmed praise to God. It's like everything is in slow-motion for a bit while you're processing your thoughts.

For the past couple of weeks, I have had a really heavy heart. I was missing my precious second child and knew that we still weren't at the top of the list yet to receive a referral. I knew that at the rate that referrals were going out, we had at least another month or two of waiting. Thus, the heavy heart and teary eyes.

I had been preparing a room for our new baby and so my thoughts were on her a lot. On November 2nd, as I took a break from painting the room, I went and sat on my bed, feeling like a sad-Sally, and pleaded with God to bring my baby home soon. I asked that He would give us a referral yet this week. I just kept saying, "Please, God" over and over. I jokingly said to Matt earlier in the week that it would be so neat to get our referral on our anniversary.

Then yesterday, Annie went shopping with her Grandma Oni, and I was prepping my bedroom for painting. I had been watching my friend Sarah's daughter and she had just arrived to pick her up when the phone rang. It was our adoption coordinator getting back to me on a question that I had on our home study. At the end of the call she said, "Oh, and would you like your referral? I have it if you'd like it." To which I said, "Shut up!" Haha. It really was a shock!

After hearing the details and looking at her picture I ran down to Matt's office and surprised him. What a happy day! We have named her Sophia and she is 7 months old. Right now she is in an orphanage in Ethiopia that is a great distance from the captial, Addis Ababa. She will be moved to Addis within the next few weeks. The town that she is coming from is very, very poverty-stricken. Nearly all of Ethiopia is in great poverty, but this area is especially hard-hit. Please pray for her health and safety.

I wish I could post her picture, but I can't until we pass court. Our paperwork should be submitted to the court sometime this week and then we will wait to hear when we will travel. Most likely our first trip will be in January. I am hoping that we can be home with her before her first birthday, which is in March, but I know that it isn't likely. But, hey! God can do very unlikely things!

Happy Anniversay, Matt! I love the life that we have together and I love being on this journey with you! Our little family is such a joy. We are blessed beyond measure.