They Say Good Things Come in Threes

I figured I better not make everyone wait for days to hear the story of our exciting 24 hours.  So here we go...(btw, it's gonna be a long one, but it's OH so worth it!)

On Monday of this week, I emailed my contact at Lifeline to find out what the status was of my dossier.  The last I heard, they had it and were waiting on a form to be signed by my social worker so they could get the dossier back to the CCCWA (which is the China authority overseeing all things adoption).  I knew the form had been signed and sent, but had not gotten an update.  And since we were gone to Atlanta all last weekend, I didn't really think about it.

Unfortunately, my main contact was out of the office all week so I received an immediate Out Of Office reply.  On Wednesday, I decided to email my secondary contact just to see if she happened to know an update.  She responded and said that yes, my dossier was back with the CCCWA and they were just waiting on my new Log In Date (LID) which they were expecting "any day now".  I was pleasantly surprised as I had hoped that would be the answer, but feared the transfer had delayed everything.  I responded back with my excitement and surprise and asked her had the CCCWA had any issues with the transfer.  It was late in the day and I didn't get a response.

On my way home that afternoon, I was talking to another Mom from school when Steve beeped in on my other line.  When I answered his words were, "I have an interview tomorrow!"  WHAT!?  He had contacted this recruiter way back at the beginning of July multiple times and had gotten no response.  Finally, he got over it, realizing he wasn't going to get a return call and just moved on.  But finally the guy called, says they are about to hire another group of folks and wants to see him.  I was stunned.  But not nearly as much as I would be later in the evening.

When I finally got home, we choked down dinner because Steve had praise band practice about 30 minutes away at the campus of our main church and had to pick his co-band member up before going and Jenna and I had plans at the grocery store.  Soon after Steve left, Jenna and I went to the grocery.  It was probably 7:15 by the time we got there and because the store was pretty much empty and I had no one to go home to, we took our time.  By the time I got the groceries, checked out, loaded them in, drove home, loaded them out and put them away, it was 9:30.  And I was HOT (it was 99 degrees at 7:15 when we got to the store).  So I decided to run up and shower real quick.

When I got done with my shower, Steve called to say he was on his way home, but had to drop his friend off first.  I sat down on the couch with my hair in a towel and my PJs on with the intent of reading my blogs.  I had just logged onto Facebook when Jenna hollers from the kitchen, "Your blackberry is buzzing!"  My blackberry is for my work, so I normally don't check it at night unless I'm waiting for an email or have a special reason to.  But since Jenna knows how to work my blackberry, so pulled it out and brought it to me.  It was 9:47pm and I had an email from my agency at 9:37 asking me to call her at home.

You might think that would be the first indication that good news was coming, but that's one of the many great things about this agency.  The social workers work in the evenings from home many times because that's the daylight hours in China and I've talked to both of them before in the evening.  I called her and we chatted for a while about it being late and how we were both up.  I was expecting her to give me an update on my dossier and how much long it would be before we got our LID.  We were really hoping to get logged back in so that we could be eligible to be matched from the August shared list which is expected to come out late this month.

Instead, she said, "The reason I'm calling is because we have a referral for you to review."  WHAT?!  That was the last thing in the world I expected to hear!  She told me a little bit about this baby girl and said she would send me the file.  And she said, "Oh, and we got your LID, it's today!"  LOL!!!

I got off the phone and immediately called Steve who was still in transit.  He was trying to chit chat with me and I was like, "Um, how close are you?" and he said he was about 10 minutes away.  I told him our agency called and we got our LID and he was excited.  And then I said, "And we also have a referral so GET HOME NOW!"  He was totally stunned and said he would be home right away!

I then texted Katelyn (who you met earlier this week) and called Rachel.  Rachel was freaking out and wondered why I wasn't yet freaking out.  Well, I had stuff to do.  Remember, I was in my PJs with my wet hair up in a towel.  So I ran upstairs, put my hair up in a clip and put my clothes back on.  Why would I do that?  Because I'm a scrapbooker.  And I wanted to get a picture of us seeing her face for the first time.  I also set up my camera on a tripod and got the remote ready.  All while NOT opening the file and waiting on Steve to get home.

Finally he gets home and all three of us sat down to see...who our sweet Kylie was...

Unfortunately, I can't show her picture here until we get pre-approval from China.  But I can email and I can show you in person.  We did have a doctor review her medical file and except for her cleft lip and palate, she's perfect.  We sent in our LOI (letter of intent) yesterday.

What we know about this baby:

Name:  I've removed this part since we don't have authorization to post it yet...   Her surname is part of the name of the city where she was found.  The rest of her name means "welcome" and "baby".  We will most likely use part of her given Chinese name with her American name. 

She was found on January 31, 2011 at the door of a restaurant.  Based off of her appearance, they deduced her birthday was January 30, 2011.

Developmentally, she is on target from what we can see though of course, she is a little bit small, which is not usual in these cases.  Her records describe her as "beautiful and smart..likes toys with bright colors.  Likes to listen to music." 

And then if you read the post below, you know Steve's interview went well and he got a job!  That has certainly been a long time coming!

I know there are tons of questions about when we will pick up sweet Kylie and probably even about her cleft lip/palate.  I'll answer those in a separate email.  Until then...let's remember Who is responsible for all the good news in my family and with my friend Darlene...I'm overwhelmed with God's goodness and patience.

So if you are a praying person.  Please thank God today on our behalf.  He deserves ALL the praise for what has happened!