We are coming down from the adrenaline rush and are so humbled and happy to announce that America World called us today at 2:30 p.m. CST to say, “Today is the day. This is your referral call.”
My office is in our house, so I was sitting here plowing through some stuff when I got a Facebook message from Karen Bowman saying that she just got “the call.” At this news I immediately sent an email out to a few people announcing that we were finally number one in line for a girl, and then I ran out to the car to get my cell phone in case Karen tried to call me. A few minutes later, Ryan called to say that he heard the good news about the Bowmans and that he was happy but that he didn’t want me to get my hopes up. I said that I wasn’t getting my hopes up at all but that I was just so excited for Karen and Chad. I hung up with him and then Karen called. We exchanged screams of joy, hung up, and then my mom called (because she had gotten the email about us moving up in line). She wanted to know how close we really were and I said that I didn’t know but that it could be today or this week or this month. And then about five minutes into our conversation, my cell phone lit up right next to me with the 703 area code flashing brightly and I said, “Mom, it’s today! That’s them. Terra is calling NOW!”
My conversation with Terra lasted three minutes tops. She said the baby was a “really cute” 6-month old, tried to pronounce her name, and told me that the baby has has an unusual amount of profile (background) info that we would definitely want to look through. Most children have very little info about family members and where they came from, but our little girl has quite a bit of background, none of which we can share at this point, though all of which we are honored to possess.
I called Ryan (“We have a baby!”) as soon as I hung up with Terra and he didn’t even let me get her age out before he said, “Okay, I’m leaving right now,” and hung up the phone. Apparently a few people hog (or is it dog?) piled him in the office at church and away he went.
We woke the boys up early from their naps so that they could open the photos with us, and we caught it all on film. So I let that speak for itself soon.
There is so much more to share about this afternoon and about what happens next, but I’ll get to that tomorrow. There is another phase of waiting to endure, as we probably won’t travel until April, but we’ll explain all that later.
We can’t post any photos for a couple more months, but we can tell you the name we are giving her…
Consider Africa.
Consider the AIDS epidemic.
Consider the orphans.
Consider Christ.
Consider brining the remedy.
Consider all of this.
And consider her.