Referral Paperwork DONE!

First of all, I have to say THANK YOU so much for sharing in our JOY about seeing our daughter's face!  I have read every sweet comment, and it just means so much!  It is so precious to know that so many of ya'll have walked this adoption journey with us over the past 3 years, faithfully checking for updates and praying for our family and our Caroline Faith in Ethiopia!  Words can't adequately express how much it means to me!  THANK YOU!!!

I hope to be able to sit down soon to write out all the amazing, God-ordained details of last Thursday when we got the call!  It was incredible!!!  I have pretty much been walking around in a fog of JOY and LOVE over the past week! :)

It's been pretty crazy around here with getting the call while on vacation, then getting home and sharing our GREAT news, the kids being out of school for summer, getting referral paperwork finished, etc.  It's been a totally fun whirlwind!!!  I haven't even had a chance to unpack my suitcase yet! :)

But I want to document this big step in our process!  So after we got the call last Thursday, our first step was to consult with our international pediatrician in Birmingham, AL.  We couldn't officially accept Caroline Faith's referral until we consulted with her, and then emailed her report to AGCI.  So, while trying to balance all this with enjoying our vacation with the kids, I was so thankful to be able to get in touch with our international pediatrician Friday!  We were out at the pool that day with the kids and sitting there emailing our social worker and the pediatrician's office!  It was so crazy and fun!!!

PRAISE GOD that He allowed our pediatrician the time to review Caroline Faith's medical history on the Friday afternoon before Memorial Day weekend!  Such a blessing!!!  Then we were able to quickly email it to AGCI, and we got to officially accept our baby girl's referral that very afternoon!  This was HUGE because then AGCI could go ahead and notify the Ethiopia staff to begin to put our paperwork together with our baby girl's to get ready to submit us to the Ethiopian courts!!!  YAY!!!

We headed home from vacation on Memorial Day, and I spent the whole time in the car filling out the "transition plan" for our agency that is a big part of our referral paperwork.  Then Monday night, we shared our amazing news with everyone!!!  Ahhhh!  That was just so much FUN!  :)

Then Tuesday morning, I began to get all the referral paperwork printed out and ready to get signed and notarized.  That took a lot longer than I thought.  It was a lot of paperwork!  We then met Jody at our bank to get LOTS of documents notarized.  After that, we grabbed a quick lunch with Jody and then we were off to...

 mail in our REFERRAL PAPERWORK!!!  Love these silly faces!

(That is not Caroline Faith on the cover.  That's the cutie on all the referral paperwork packets!)

 BIG SMILE from Mommy! :)

A sweet lady offered to take a picture of all of us together!  It was so much fun to tell the people in the store what we were doing and show off our baby girl's picture! 

So, we got all our paperwork overnighted to our agency in Portland, and it felt so great to have it all DONE!!!  And our case worker emailed me today that she received it.  She told me that I might have set a record for getting the paperwork done!  Haha! After 3 years, I am just so ready!  I was trying to get it done as quickly as possible!

So now we will have a few scheduled calls with our agency, we will be working on updating our home study (for the 3rd time!), and we just WAIT to hear news about a court date for our baby girl!   Then we can plan our trip to Ethiopia to go meet her!!!

As ya'll know, God has taught us MUCH about waiting over the past 3 years, so I am already praying that He'll help me to patiently wait on His timing to get a court date!  I was reading 1 Corinthians 13 this morning, and the words "Love is PATIENT" have stuck with me all day long!

We love the Lord, and we are so in love with our daughter.  I pray that we can wait with a patient love!  At least now I have ADORABLE pictures to stare at all day while we wait! :)