In the adoption community a referral is that point in the process when the agency that you are working with matches your family with a child(ren).
For those who have followed Ethiopian adoptions in recent years, the time that it has taken families to receive that long-awaited referral has increased, and increased, and increased. Most agencies have wait times of about 24 months at this point. (And that's not including the 6 months of time you spend prior to that completing all the necessary paper work and obtaining the appropriate clearances.) For our family ... the official wait time began in September 2011.
All of that to say, that sometimes God has other plans ... which is what happened for us. We officially received our referral for Zone in August 2012. (Just less than one year of official "waiting.") Zone's profile was featured in an update from our agency, Holt International, on August 1, 2011. The first words we read about our son included that he was a "happy little boy", "asks many questions", and "enjoys participating in make believe." I knew instantly, that I wanted to learn more about him and see what God had planned for our family and this little boy. I was reading these words at 4:30am the day after receiving the update. If you know me, you know that it.is.not.my.style. to be awake at 4:30am. But something (hmm?? God??) had me up and I decided to revisit the update I had only skimmed the day before.
By 5:00 am I was sending an email to the Holt offices in Oregon (grant you it was 3:00 am there) asking about this boy. That was a Thursday morning. The steps that followed included phone calls, question answering, more phone calls, and more questions. All completely worth it to end the day on Friday knowing that we were being "considered" as a forever family for this sweet boy. (Whose name we didn't yet know.)
The process for referring a waiting child (Zone's file was being worked through this program) through our agency is thorough and lengthy. All we knew by Friday afternoon was that God had placed this boy on our hearts and we were so thankful for the opportunity to pray for him and for God's affirmation that we were indeed supposed to be working to adopt.
I was scheduled to fly out for the MOPS International Convention the following Tuesday. So when our family departed for Chicago on Monday we were trusting in the process. We knew that our next step would be a phone call conference with one of our agencies social workers. This was scheduled for the Sunday that I would return.
God, in His infinite wisdom, had other plans. Not more than an hour after I arrived in Dallas I received a text message from my husband. It simply said, "Check your email." I opened my email (from my phone, as I had decided not to bring a laptop or iPad on the trip) to see an email from our agency. The subject line: Child Material Zone. I thought, hmmm? We are in the child material zone. Wonder what that means. (Are you getting it? 'Cuz this took me some time.) I opened the email to read:
Huh??? Pursue or decline this child's adoption? What was this?? Oh my word!! This was a referral file!!! As I paged down the email I realized that included in this email were pictures!! Pictures of our sweet boy!!
I immediately called my husband who was in Door County with our kids visiting his parents while I was away. I am in Dallas. He's in Door County. And we are about to look at the pictures of our son for the very first time. And all I have is a stupid smart phone. (Irony??)
Hence the journey to Zone began. We took one look at his sweet face and knew that God had prepared us for this moment. That God had begun the work of placing him in his forever family -- ours!
By 5:00 am I was sending an email to the Holt offices in Oregon (grant you it was 3:00 am there) asking about this boy. That was a Thursday morning. The steps that followed included phone calls, question answering, more phone calls, and more questions. All completely worth it to end the day on Friday knowing that we were being "considered" as a forever family for this sweet boy. (Whose name we didn't yet know.)
The process for referring a waiting child (Zone's file was being worked through this program) through our agency is thorough and lengthy. All we knew by Friday afternoon was that God had placed this boy on our hearts and we were so thankful for the opportunity to pray for him and for God's affirmation that we were indeed supposed to be working to adopt.
I was scheduled to fly out for the MOPS International Convention the following Tuesday. So when our family departed for Chicago on Monday we were trusting in the process. We knew that our next step would be a phone call conference with one of our agencies social workers. This was scheduled for the Sunday that I would return.
God, in His infinite wisdom, had other plans. Not more than an hour after I arrived in Dallas I received a text message from my husband. It simply said, "Check your email." I opened my email (from my phone, as I had decided not to bring a laptop or iPad on the trip) to see an email from our agency. The subject line: Child Material Zone. I thought, hmmm? We are in the child material zone. Wonder what that means. (Are you getting it? 'Cuz this took me some time.) I opened the email to read:
"Please see the attached child material that you requested. ...
"please let either of us know once you are comfortable making a decision regarding pursuing or declining this child’s adoption."
Huh??? Pursue or decline this child's adoption? What was this?? Oh my word!! This was a referral file!!! As I paged down the email I realized that included in this email were pictures!! Pictures of our sweet boy!!
I immediately called my husband who was in Door County with our kids visiting his parents while I was away. I am in Dallas. He's in Door County. And we are about to look at the pictures of our son for the very first time. And all I have is a stupid smart phone. (Irony??)
Hence the journey to Zone began. We took one look at his sweet face and knew that God had prepared us for this moment. That God had begun the work of placing him in his forever family -- ours!
