Continuing the Journey

We Have Been Keeping a VERY BIG Secret!!

We got "The Call"!!

On Tuesday, August 19th (while I was with Carson at his OT appointment), Pam from CCAI was trying to find me. She called my cell phone. She called our house. She left messages and eventually talked to Kevin. I was completely and utterly unaware.

At 5:01PM, as I was buckling Carson into his car seat, my cell phone (which I had left turned on in the minivan during the OT session) gave off that "you have a message" alert. Weird, I thought. If it is alerting me at 5:01 that I have a message, that message must have been left just a minute or two ago. The message had been left at 4:59.

I checked my voice mail, figuring it was Daddy checking on when we would be home from OT. I was wrong. The phone number on the message was a "303" area code. 303??!! That's CCAI!!!! The message was from Pam. Now, since we were still waiting on our homestudy to be approved by CCAI, I figured she had a question about that. However -- for those who know CCAI well -- Pam is the one who calls with referrals. Can't be, I thought. We haven't even turned in our dossier. But still...

I tried to stay calm and called the number back. Pam answered after five rings (I was afraid I was getting voice mail by then) and told me she had just talked to my husband, so she didn't need to talk to me. "Oh, OK," I responded, figuring it was a homestudy question. (Although how he answered it without my help was a bit puzzling...) She laughed and said something along the lines of, "No, I'm teasing. I wanted to know if you would like to look at the file of a darling little girl."

That is when my brain completely stopped working.

I repeated what she said, quizzically. In the back seat of the minivan, Meggie and her friend Lauren started screaming and jumping up and down. (Carson was more worried about getting his DVD started for the ride home and had no idea what was going on.) Pam laughed and confirmed I had heard her correctly.

My response? "Shut UP!!!!" (I can be so eloquent at times...)

Pam gave me some details and said she had already told Kevin about this little "honey bunny" -- a classic Pam phrase in referral phone calls, so I hear. She also told me she wanted to e-mail me the file. I nearly fainted. I was in my minivan with errands to run before taking Lauren home and driving the 45 minutes from Lauren's house to ours. It was going to be at LEAST two more hours until I could get home to see that e-mail.

Pam, are you trying to KILL me here??

She kept reminding me to drive safely, take my time, and we could call her tomorrow to let her know if she should put the file on hold for us (meaning no one else could look at the file until we released it). That didn't need to wait until tomorrow...I wanted that file locked RIGHT THEN!

I was afraid to ask, but had to know...why us? We haven't completed our dossier yet. Carson's adoption hasn't been finalized for a year yet (which is a CCAI requirement, to have a year between adoption and submission of another dossier). And there are SO MANY people ahead of us "in line." She said it had to do with the special needs and the age range we would accept -- our MCC was VERY inclusive and we requested a two- to four-year-old girl.

To say that I was in utter shock would be the understatement of the year. I kept it together (barely) while running my errands, then sat in stunned disbelief at Panera with the kids and Lauren's mom, Missy. I believe I may have consumed three spoonfuls total of my soup...Meggie and Carson ate the rest of my dinner. (Those who know me know that is NOT like me!) It just felt surreal.

When we got home, we bee-lined it to the computer. I pulled up the e-mail from Pam and tried to calmly read the text of her message. Who was I kidding? Gimme the good stuff!!

The first picture was her "mugshot"...
...then a picture with a friend (our baby girl is the one on the right in the hot pink coat)...
...a closeup of that shot...
...and "the clincher"...
Couldn't you just EAT HER UP??!!

Her Chinese name is Dang Yu Han...soon to be our Molly Jayne YuHan. (Now you know why we had the "great name debate" a few weeks ago...we were naming this adorable little girl!) She was born October 21st, 2004 (making her 3 years, 11 months old -- 13 months younger than Carson) and lives in foster care at the Luohe City Social Welfare Institute in Henan Province. Her special need is repaired meningocele and, based on her medical reports, the repair was a success and she is doing very well.

According to the reports (as well as things Pam told us on the phone), she's a spicy girl! She is very bright, loves school, and is a "charming little princess." If the other children misbehave in class, our Little Lady will scold them and then make sure the teacher knows they misbehaved...Carson had better look out! She is also reportedly very obedient to her foster mother and likes to help her do housework. (No complaints from Mommy on THAT one!)

Now the fun begins...

The evening of "The Call," Meggie got online and ordered a bunch of stuff for Molly's room...new comforter, pillows, curtains, etc. Since Molly will be four by the time we get her, she'll be in the big girl bed -- and all the bedding and accessories we have are for the crib!

Pam said we should travel 3-5 months after getting our dossier completed...I'm thinking that will put us in China sometime between February and April. Gulp!! There are so many details to be worked out...but, having just gone through the whirlwind of China adoption with Carson 10 months ago, I know that God will provide what we need and work those details out.

We received our pre-approval (PA) today, which means we are now free to spread the word about our Little Lady. Upon arriving home from work, I checked my e-mails and found a message from Deniece at CCAI...the subject was "Picture" and this is what it contained...
...oh my goodness, don't you just love it?! Deniece said this picture was taken by a staff member of CCAI and she believes it was in June of this year. That's a pretty current photo and totally made my weekend!!

We are truly blessed!!