We Started to Tell the Family

Well, we're down to #4 on the boy list (23 overall) and the referral call could come any day. So... this Christmas/New Year's break is the time to tell our families and friends. I (WT) told most of my family on Saturday night at our little Christmas get-together, and they were less than excited. They pretty much said nothing and haven't brought it up since. Oh well...what can you do. Next on the docket is to tell Radames parents. Radames has no idea how they'll react. They'll probably have a million questions, b/c adoption isn't very common in Spanish culture.

Then, the next steps is to let all of our friends and extended families know. That'll be excting, because I'm sure they'll be supportive and sweet about it. We'd like to let people know before the referral comes in, which could be as early as the week of the 5th of Jan! yikes! We're counting the minutes! :)

Got The Call, But Not THE Call

So today at around 2:30PM, we recieved a call from our adoption agency representative. She was calling to make sure they had the right information regarding our placement. They have had 8 referrals already this week and it's not even Friday. So there could be more before they leave at noon tomorrow. She informed us that we are now #25 overall and #6 on the boys list and we are NUMBER ONE if they get a boy that is between 12-15 months old. The five families in front of us are all waiting for boys are only approved for 0-12-months-olds. (We are waiting for a boy 0-15 months.) SO we could get the BIG CALL as early as tomorrow. If we dont get it tomorrow, we more than likely will get it after the new year. Our rep told us that even their offices will be closed their offices in Ethiopia will be still getting referrals while they're on the holiday break. After our agency goes back to their offices on Jan. 5th, they will hopefully have a ton of referrals and we could be one of the lucky ones.

My head is already spinning because it is beginning to come to fruition. There will be another person with Ella, Wynne, and myself. Another person to add to our craziness. I am already thinking about changing diapers, making formula, setting a new bedtime, and hoping that Ella does not wake up when the kid wakes up in the middle of the night.

We told the Smarty Pants team

Last night we told the SP team at our holiday get-together here in TN, and they were super supportive and nice about the whole thing. We were sort of nervous, b/c we haven't really told anyone yet and this was a big "coming out" party for us. It made it all feel quite real, and we even shed a few tears as we were telling people - something we hadn't done yet. Ella started to dance around in her Big Sister t-shirt and fairie skirt and everyone gave us lots of big hugs and told us how happy they were for us. It was really nice. We stayed up for a while just sharing some of the details and gabbing out the process. It was quite a relief to let people know finally. We have the best staff ever! Now we just have to tell our families. Yikes! Who knows how that will go.

About to let the kid out of the bag

So, we've decided that when our staff comes in to town on the 15th-16th of Dec for an end of year get-together, we're gonna spill the beans. At that time, it'll be 5 months and 3+ weeks on the waiting list, and the wait time is 6-9 months - with boy requests leaning more to the six side. Yikes! We haven't figured out exactly how we'll tell everyone, but we're gonna do it. During the holidays we'll be telling our families and friends and co-workers. Oh, boy. I can only imagine. We're more nervous about our families, because they are going to have a harder time understanding. We're sure everyone will be happy for us, though. Well, we hope.

As of today, we're #40 on the overall list and #14 on the list of those not waiting for a girl or a sibling pair. Basically, there needs to be 13 other boys matched before we'd get our call. There were no referrals at all the last two weeks, so that hopefully means that a bunch will be coming in very soon. They tend to go in little waves - first a lot, then none, then alot again. There's been a 2-3 week "dry spell", so hopefully more will come in next week and we'll be below #10 when we tell people. We hate to tell them like 3 months before it even happens.

OMG! I'm so nervous about the thought of telling people. Radames has said that he wants me to bring it up at our company meeting...so I've gotta figure out a fun plan.