When I stopped by my favorite Ethiopian restaurant to get take-out for dinner, I had no idea we'd be celebrating a huge milestone in our adoption journey over injera and doro wat. I placed my order and told her I'd be back at 4p to pick it up. Then I headed back to the office.
About 3p my office phone rang and Karla intercommed that Lisa from Bethany was holding for me. Allison, my SIL, happened to be in town and sitting in my office. We just stared at each other as my heart hit the floor. I knew it was THE call. I've been walking around with my Blackberry glued to my palm for 8 months and she calls on my office phone!
When I answered she said, "You knew you were getting a referral today, didn't you?" (Apparently Spence had called her earlier in the day to ask about travel shots.) I said, "Actually, I thought it would be tomorrow, but I was just rallying for a pre-Valentine's Day baby." She said, "You got it!"
She proceeded to tell me the details, then said she was going to email me some docs, which I knew would include a picture. When she asked to confirm my email address, I gave her the WRONG ADDRESS. She read it back to me, and I apparently just made up half of it. Truthfully, I was talking and listening, but not hearing or making any sense. When the doc finally arrived, I forwarded it to Spence so we could open it at the same time. We searched and searched, but there was no picture. I hung up with Spence and called Lisa back, knowing she was about to leave for the day. The receptionist pleasantly said, "She's in with the director. Would you like her voicemail?"
"Absolutely not!" I shouted. "I just got my referral and there is no picture! Please don't let her walk out the door until she calls me."
I'm sure she deals with pushy, impatient adoptive parents all the time, so she said, "Hold on a minute." Within seconds, Lisa was on saying another email is coming through with more detail and a picture. I popped the email open without even forwarding it to Spence -- whoops! -- and saw...[insert angels singing].
The rest of the afternoon was a blur of questions like: How do you pronounce his name? Wonder what his story is?" And me gasping things like: We have NO boy clothes. And Caroline's pastel room won't work.
When I got home, we feasted on Ethiopian cuisine and stared at his picture. But we didn't show it to Caroline until after dinner. Instead we broke out the video camera to capture the virtual meeting of brother and sister. When we said, "That's going to be your brother," Caroline replied, "No, that's my sister."
Well, he is dressed in white and lying on a pink blanket.
So I ask, would it be too much to laminate his picture and pin it to my shirt?
