So, it all started over a year ago. Jason and I have talked about adopting forever, but seriously started talking about right after he deployed. He was in Iraq and told me to start doing some research. So I did. But then I quit. I don't know. It just seemed so overwhelming. What agency do we go with? What country should we adopt from? How much money is this going to cost? Not to mention, Jason's on the other side of the world demanding, or maybe asking nicely, for daily updates on my research. Like I said, finally I quit and prayed that Jason wouldn't ask. And he didn't for several weeks. But...it came up again last fall and as winter approached I found myself spending endless hours on the couch looking at agencies, home studies, website after website, and countless blogs. When Jason came home for mid-tour leave, we decided on Ethiopia. It just felt right. Then as the weeks went on, I found an agency. And then I found a home study agency. It was all falling into place. The only problem was that I was in El Paso, and Jason was in Iraq. Not exactly conducive for filling out applications, getting fingerprints, etc. We went ahead and applied to Hope Adoption Agency in February and were accepted. Whew. But then came the waiting again. Now I was waiting for Jason to come home. He came home in April, we were gone almost the entire month of June and I started hitting the adoption stuff hard in July. We did our FBI fingerprints, finished the home study packet, and did a lot more waiting. We breezed through our home visit. I was way more nervous than I needed to be, but that's just me. The home study was written, we were just waiting on our FBI fingerprints to come back saying we were clear. That part seemed to take FOREVER!! But, it finally happened and our home study was issued. In the meantime, I was preparing our dossier. Our desk was taken over by papers, and doctors notes, employment letters, and other crazy documents. While I was not so patiently waiting for our home study to come in the mail, I realized that the next step was to get the dossier state authenticated. One problem. We had two letters of reference that were notarized in Missouri...everything else was notarized in Texas. I called our agency and asked in a panic what to do. Because God is awesome, the girl at the agency told me that I could send her the entire dossier and she would take it downtown to the courthouse and get it authenticated. Because its an official adoption document and she represents the agency, it could happen this way. Low and behold, our home study arrived that day. I frantically made copies of everything and overnighted our dossier to St. Louis. This was Tuesday. By Friday, we could be on the waiting list. Whoa!!! I called Wednesday afternoon to make sure it arrived (because I'm a control freak) and she said she had it on her desk. Now, she was going to take it to the courthouse Thursday and mail it to the Assistant Stork on Friday, which is when we are officially eligible to be on the waiting list. But, she threw me for a loop. She asked me if I wanted some crazy news and of course I said yes. At that point, she told me that we already had a referral. WHAT??!! I almost ran off the road due to excitement and instant tears. WHAT??!! She told me she would email me the referral. I called Jason immediately and since I wanted to surprise him, I just told him I needed to come by his office for him to sign something. As soon as I walked into his office, he whipped out his pen, and I nervously laughed and said there wasn't anything to sign...we have a referral!! I think he didn't believe me but I started taking over his computer trying to pull up me email account. So, there we sat, in Jason's office, on a Wednesday afternoon...about to see our baby for the first time. I don't know that there are words to describe the emotions that were going on inside of me. It finally pulled up and we read the information. Our SON, we have a son!! is 3 months old. We read the email first...with the basic info, and then opened the attachment. There was his face!! The sweetest little face you ever saw. Jason and I both laughed, I cried, and we just kept staring at his picture. Every once in a while we'd look at each other, smile, laugh, and then look back at his picture. It was amazing. There was one minor glitch with our dossier. We had the old power of attorney. Attached with our referral was the new one. Laurie couldn't take our dossier to be authenticated until we faxed her the new one. Another hold up...Jason doesn't have a printer in his office. We emailed everything to his buddy and ran over to his office. We ran into several guys that we know and I couldn't contain my excitement. So, we get the power of attorney form and race off to the JAG office. Go figure that their notary isn't in. That would be our luck. We got it notarized the next morning and sent it off to Hope as fast as we could. The first 24 hours of knowing about our son are still a blur. We called our families and shared the news. Jason and I went to dinner to celebrate and bought two little outfits. Everything with the dossier worked out and it has been in Ethiopia for a little more than a month. At this point, we are just waiting for our court date. This is the hardest part. I can look at little Levi's picture, but I can't hold him or kiss him or tell him mommy loves him. There are days that are just overwhelming. Some days are fine. Some days the littlest things make me cry and long to have Levi home with us, where he belongs. So, that's our story in a nutshell. Ok, maybe more than a nutshell. I tend to overload with details. But, that's not always a bad thing...
