It’s been 10 months since we began the adoption process. In those 10 months I have fantasized about getting our referral about a million times. I would get the call while Zman was away and I’d get to tell him the big news, I’d get the call while at work, at home, during a meeting, at the doctor… well, you get the idea. All those fantasies all shared one common thread; I’d get the call.

I sent an email to our agency earlier this month verifying all our phone numbers and the order we’d like to be contacted in. My cell phone was listed as #2 on this list, right after our home number. Remember when I told you that I was keeping my cell phone by my side 24/7 in anticipation of the big moment? Yeah, well…

I was at work and had come down stairs from my office to cover the front desk for the receptionist’s lunch break, leaving my purse with my cell phone in it sitting on my desk. She had only been gone a couple of minutes when Zman came running down the stairs waving his cell phone around like a maniac (we work at the same place). I was looking at him like he had completely lost his mind; he told me later he had lost the ability for rational thought when our adoption coordinator (AC) said the words "I have your referral". I found out later that the AC had called the house and my cell phone first before calling Zman's cell phone.

He finally gots it out that this was our referral and put his cell phone on speaker phone mode so we could both hear all the details together. Of course this is when the reception phone decided to start ringing off the hook and believe me, I did not answer it! But all that ringing made it impossible to hear what was being said so we quickly ran into the conference room next to the reception area and shut the door.

The AC told us that we had a beautiful baby boy and told us his name which she had to repeat several times; it’s hard to pronounce properly. She told us how old he was and was just telling us about his birthday being questioned by the doctor when I had to give up trying to listen to the call. The speaker on the cell phone was very quiet and I’m slightly hard of hearing so I wasn’t getting much out of it anyway. The AC told us that she was emailing us a picture first and then would send along the referral information so I ran back to the reception computer to check my email. (I found out later that the AC had called the house and my cell phone first before calling Zman's cell phone. I really wish she would have called our work number next because that would have made it mush easier for us both to listen in; we could have conferanced the phones!)

Zman stayed on the phone while I tried desperately to remember what my password was and to get my hands to stop shaking long enough to type it in. Of course the email wasn’t there yet so while we waited I typed out a quick blog post (cause I’m strange like that) and a quick email to my agency yahoo group; and when I say quick, I mean quick…my brain was barely working at this point.

Finally the email came through and I got to see his precious face for the first time. The first photo wasn’t the one I posted here with the smile; it was one with him looking unsure and a bit worried. I immediately began to cry and I could hear Zman standing right behind me still chattering away with the AC. After a couple of minuets the second photo came through and I literally yelped when I saw that smiling face for the first time. By this time a few of our coworkers had joined the drama and were crowding around behind the desk to get a peak at our new son.

Zman finally got off the phone at the same time the receptionist returned and we both ran upstairs to tell Princess who was hanging out in the radio office. She was so excited and we all ran back to my office to print out the photo. As soon as she had a copy, Princess went around to every single person in the office and showed them her new baby brother! She kept saying how cute he was and how she wished we could go get him right that minute.

Zman and I spent the next several minutes rehashing with me trying to get all the information I missed by not being able to hear the call and looking over the referral information. Then we split up into our individually offices to call our family and friends. My mom was down at the office about 2.5 minute after I got off the phone with her; she couldn’t wait to see her new grandbaby. I took a few minutes to make a more coherent blog and yahoo group post, and to email just about everyone I’ve ever been in email contact with before we headed out to pick up Cookie and celebrate our new baby together as a family.

Today it all seems very surreal. I look at that beautiful face and I can’t believe it’s our referral, it really happened! Wow! What an amazing day!

posted at 4:52 PM  
Labels: Adoption