TODAY IS THE DAY!!!

Today at 11:10 we got our call from Duni with the news of our baby girl. I was walking out the door to pick up Kole from pre-K and almost didn't get the phone.

"Hello"
"Danielle, this is Duni. Congratulations. Today is the day!"

Duni went on to tell me her age and name and a few other details. After trying to work around a meeting with Karl, I hopped in the car with Owen and Brenna (the little girl I babysit twice a week) and went to get Kole. He was in shock when he stepped into the van and I told him. He kept saying, "No you didn't. No, mom, you DIDN'T. MOM, You didn't get the referral." I wasn't sure about his reaction so I asked him about it to which he responded, "I just wasn't ready. I didn't know it was coming today!" I think after SO many months of waiting, it just felt so unreal that today was actually the day!!!

Well, I got almost to Crossroads (app. 25 minutes away) and realized I needed to have Braden to share the family moment, so I turned around and went 20 minutes back to his school. Then, he had just gone out for recess, so we had to go find him there. Then, he didn't want to come until after recess (Does anyone see how much of the real world this is?!? I don't know why I always build scenarios up in my mind :)) So, FINALLY, we headed to Karl at around 12:15. After a stop through McDonalds drive-through, we got to the church. It then took about 15 minutes to figure out how to rig the video camera. FINALLY, at 1:30 (I'm not kidding you!!!!) all five of us sat down at Karl's computer. First, Owen accidently hit Braden in the face (Owen was reaching for the computer and I went to bat his hand away and it hit Braden would be the more accurate description). Braden starts bawling. Then, after we try to deal with this, I start to read the e-mail and just as I'm starting to click for the picture something happens and the ENTIRE E-MAIL disappears. No joke. We can't find it anywhere. We even went to Karl's e-mail to see if there was another copy sent to him. Nope. We search awhile longer and find it was mysteriously taken to another folder. Now it is about 1:40.

@ app. 2 hours and 30 minutes after getting the call, we see our little girl for the first time. She is so precious. She is so tiny. She is our little gift from God. We can't wait to let everyone meet her. Thank you for your prayers.

People always ask, "What now?" America World tells you to expect 6-8 weeks at this point for travel. This will happen if you pass court in Ethiopia the first time. This is a huge if. Many families do not, and there's a myriad of reasons from paperwork not being right to paperwork not being where it needs to be to someone taking a day off work. Who knows? If we don't pass the first time, usually you're scheduled for a new court date a month later. And then a month after that...and so on and so forth. But, we will be praying for a smooth process. Everything has been so smooth so far and we feel incredibly blessed. Please pray with us that we can bring this little one home in January. That is our heart's desire. As Kole said, "I wish we could just go get her today!!!"

Rejoicing......