Last Thursday I received a phone call that gave me goose-bumps, made my eyes fill with tears and my heart swell with praise.....we got an unofficial referral!!! Ok, the unofficial makes it seem not quite "real". But trust me...it is!
In the middle of July, I saw a picture of an adorable, barely 9 yr old boy on our agency's waiting child list. I asked Andrew if he was willing to look at the profile and to my complete shock he said ok (he had always said no before). As soon as Andrew finished reading his profile, he said, "Let's find out more about this little boy." I rushed a message off to our agency and our case worker responded with more profile information and a surprise - this little boy is in Hong Kong, not China. While it is true that China owns Hong Kong now (since 1997), HK has been allowed to keep some institutions separate from China - and that includes its adoption program. Decision time. Did we really want to pursue this little boy, knowing that doing so meant changes on our Home Study (we were told an estimated $500 + time) and removing ourselves from the China program? We prayed and pretty quickly decided yes, God had placed a real desire in our hearts to adopt this little boy, so we needed to pursue him. The only way we could find out from Hong Kong if he was still available for adoption was to request a "preliminary" match for our family (preliminary because our dossier is not ready yet). Our case worker sent our Homestudy off to Hong Kong. And then we waited.
It felt like a L O N G three weeks between that decision and the phone call.
But that call.....it's hard to explain.
I heard our case worker's voice on the other end and I knew in my heart why she was calling. I put everything down and said a silent prayer of thanks that our kids were busy doing school work so I didn't have to tell them to be quiet so I could hear. And then she said, "I have good news...." that was all I needed. Immediately tears came to my eyes. Then she told me that not only had we been preliminarily matched, but instead of just the typical "such and such child has been preliminarily matched with such and such family" the Hong Kong Social Service office had written, "This looks like a great family for _____ (our little boy)." I couldn't stop the tears now. In case I had ever doubted that God's hands were all over the details of our adoption....here were His clear fingerprints.
I asked a few questions I don't remember any more, our case worker told me that she wasn't going to charge us anything additional for the Homestudy changes that needed to be made (thank you!) and then I called Andrew. Such joy! As soon as I got off the phone with him, I called our kids around the computer so I could show them the three pictures we had at the time. They asked a lot of excited questions, I answered what I could, and we thanked God for clearly directing us to our new son in Hong Kong.
And now we hurry up and finish our mountain of paperwork so we can wait :). I'd love to show off our new son, but we can't share any pictures online yet, and probably won't be able to for at least another month. However if you want to stop by my house, I'd be happy to show you the original 3 and the 4 new ones we have - including one with him playing the violin :).
In the middle of July, I saw a picture of an adorable, barely 9 yr old boy on our agency's waiting child list. I asked Andrew if he was willing to look at the profile and to my complete shock he said ok (he had always said no before). As soon as Andrew finished reading his profile, he said, "Let's find out more about this little boy." I rushed a message off to our agency and our case worker responded with more profile information and a surprise - this little boy is in Hong Kong, not China. While it is true that China owns Hong Kong now (since 1997), HK has been allowed to keep some institutions separate from China - and that includes its adoption program. Decision time. Did we really want to pursue this little boy, knowing that doing so meant changes on our Home Study (we were told an estimated $500 + time) and removing ourselves from the China program? We prayed and pretty quickly decided yes, God had placed a real desire in our hearts to adopt this little boy, so we needed to pursue him. The only way we could find out from Hong Kong if he was still available for adoption was to request a "preliminary" match for our family (preliminary because our dossier is not ready yet). Our case worker sent our Homestudy off to Hong Kong. And then we waited.
It felt like a L O N G three weeks between that decision and the phone call.
But that call.....it's hard to explain.
I heard our case worker's voice on the other end and I knew in my heart why she was calling. I put everything down and said a silent prayer of thanks that our kids were busy doing school work so I didn't have to tell them to be quiet so I could hear. And then she said, "I have good news...." that was all I needed. Immediately tears came to my eyes. Then she told me that not only had we been preliminarily matched, but instead of just the typical "such and such child has been preliminarily matched with such and such family" the Hong Kong Social Service office had written, "This looks like a great family for _____ (our little boy)." I couldn't stop the tears now. In case I had ever doubted that God's hands were all over the details of our adoption....here were His clear fingerprints.
I asked a few questions I don't remember any more, our case worker told me that she wasn't going to charge us anything additional for the Homestudy changes that needed to be made (thank you!) and then I called Andrew. Such joy! As soon as I got off the phone with him, I called our kids around the computer so I could show them the three pictures we had at the time. They asked a lot of excited questions, I answered what I could, and we thanked God for clearly directing us to our new son in Hong Kong.
And now we hurry up and finish our mountain of paperwork so we can wait :). I'd love to show off our new son, but we can't share any pictures online yet, and probably won't be able to for at least another month. However if you want to stop by my house, I'd be happy to show you the original 3 and the 4 new ones we have - including one with him playing the violin :).
