Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Official Referral!!!!!!!

Our Entire family is pleased (that is SO not a strong enough word!) to announce that we have accepted the referral of Henry Davis who turned 2 years old yesterday! We are so excited to welcome Davis (we'll use his current last name as his new first name) into our family! Brayden already runs around saying, "my brother. . ."! Please join us in praising our Jesus for the addition of Davis to our family. He already does everything with us as we carry an 8 x 10 picture of him everywhere and Brayden carries 4 x 6's for all of his friends!

Isn't he adorable?????

Now for the story!

On June 27, Donna (from Acres of Hope) posted a comment on the yahoogroup for AoH families saying, " For any of you families who are waiting on kids.
You might want to consider a boy (smile) we have been getting in quite
a few of them lately.Here is the lastest new kids waiting on referral." then she listed 7 kids with their names, birthdates and special needs. There were 2 sibling groups and 2 children listed as special needs (neither of which we feel called to b/c of our toddlers at home and our lack of great medical insurance) and then another little one listed as: Henry - 07/05. Immediately, I was calculating in my mind. Brayden's birthday is June of '04 and Gracie's is March of '06. We had been praying for a little boy right in between the 2. In fact, I had really been praying specifically for a little boy with a summer '05 birthday b/c then he would be exactly in between the 2! So, I emailed Donna pretty quick. I was just sure they had simply forgotten to list his special needs and if not I did not know if we were even eligible for a referral. We had sent in our application and had gotten most of our paperwork together and we just waiting for our homestudy to be completed before we sent in our dossier. Well, Donna calls me back a couple of days later, "so, you're interested in Henry?" Me: "Yes. . .can I be?. . .Does he have special needs and you just forgot to list them?. . .Am I eligible for a referral? . . .What do you know about him?" I'm pretty sure I said all of those things at once! Donna said that "no he doesn't have any special needs", "he's the cutest little thing I've ever seen", and 2 phrases that nearly knocked me over, "can you overnight me everything you have?" and "I'll write your name down here right next to his until I get all your paperwork in." Yes, that nearly threw me into a tizzy! I did not even know what that meant "I'll write your name down next to his" did that mean he was ours???? So, I quickly worked to get it all done. We were vacationing with Laura (greg's sister and the best aunt ever justsomeoflaurasramblings.blogspot.com ) so we called my Papa and my Mom to run around Orlando gathering things and overnighted them that day. While we were at the movies later that day, I checked my email from my phone (which I did about 100 times a day for the next week hoping for something from Donna!) and she had emailed me. I noticed that there was an attachment and picture. Yes, I started freaking out! My phone won't let me download attachments!!! aagh! The one thing I noticed right away was that the jpeg was named "henry davis". Immediately I turned to Greg and said "that's his name, his name will be Davis" Greg agreed immediately. As soon as the movie was over, we headed to our friends', Ali and Ryan, house and checked our email. My eyes filled with tears instantly. My son! ooh, I'd been hoping he was cute! He sure is!!

Well, the next few days were a lot of waiting. . .and waiting. . .and learning patience. We decided to wait until the referral was official before showing him off. This was a hard lesson for me, b/c I like to share everything with everyone! The next week, the Lord taught me about waiting on Him and putting this little boy back in His hands constantly! (although, I think the next few months may be about REALLY learning that lesson some more!) I also didn't really want to show people by email b/c I like to be there to see their faces. . .(so you better comment me with your thoughts!) We showed Laura b/c we wouldn't get to be with her when we got final word and spent the weekend with his picture up on her computer. He even "played" cards with us! Well, the next week on Thursday night at 11:30 I got an email from Donna saying, "yes, show your parents and I'll call you soon to make it official". I called immediately and woke both sets of parents up and told them to check their email while I was on the phone! So Fun! Still, though, I didn't believe my own ears. . .so, the next morning I called Donna again to clarify "what you're saying is that this is the boy you will refer to us as soon as you process all the paper work?" "Yes, consider this an Unofficial Referral!" YEAH!! So, we begin to show his picture to everyone! I'll admit, I did show the guy at Chick Fil A that day!!! Well, last night I got a call from Donna b/c she had new pictures taken on his birthday (see yesterday's post). I said, "ok, you'll call me tomorrow to make everything official, right?" Her response was music to my ears, "Girl, I already consider this official or I wouldn't be sending you birthday pictures!" So, now I can share him with the world! (meaning you people who check my blog!)

This is so fun! I so appreciate my sweet friends who are practically as excited as we are! We even had a ton of birthday celebrations yesterday which I will post pictures of tomorrow!

I Love you guys! This will be a long 6-9 months waiting for Davis, but I can't wait to see all that God will teach us in the process!

17 comments:

Laura said...

I love him. I am proud of you guys for following what God has called you to do.

xo

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness! He is so stinkin' sweet and adorable! I can't wait to meet him and kiss his cute cheeks over and over again! I am very happy for you and your family, Bran. I will continue to pray for everyone involved.
All my love,
Christina

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!!!!! We share your joy!! Love ,Denise

Anonymous said...

What a cutie!!! Congratulations!!

~Charity

running shoes said...

such an amazing story... congratulations!

Anonymous said...

How sweet! He is so adorable. I'm so excited for you!

Joy said...

Exciting! Congrats and blessings to your new son and your family!

Rae said...

Of course you know I think he's nearly as cute as Spencer! Who's actually more handsome than cute these days. Yikes! :)

When do we get to see the birthday pictures? I wonder if Spence and Siah will have birthday pictures (Friday and Sunday!!!). That'd light up my life (and make up a bit for the fact that we STILL haven't heard about her finalization).

Love ya, girl!
Rae

Anonymous said...

He is SO CUTE!!! Oh that little smile. I am sure you are just dying to hug him and kiss him! The Smith's are praying for you guys and obviously we can't wait to meet him. I told Collin about his new cousin and he was very excited.
We love you guys!!
Julie

Jocelyn said...

I just wanted to say one more time how much Davis melt my heart. He is so beautiful. When I go to Liberia to get Isaac, I'm going out of my way to hold him, kiss him, and tell him all about his amazing new family.

Hang in there, the wait goes by faster than you think.

-Jocelyn

Welcome to Jen said...

SO CUTE!! I am so happy for you! He has the cutest smile.


God bless,

JN

Amber G. said...

He is phenomenally adorable! Thanks for sharing your story! :) I hope the next part goes even faster than you are anticipating!
Amber

mommy zabs said...

wow he is absolutely adorable and I'm so happy for you guys! How come it takes 6-9 months now?

Carmen@littlecooksinthekitchen.com said...

What a cutie! Congratulations!

Jamie said...

Brandi,
He is so, sooooo CUTE!!! I loved your story, too. So I guess your son and my son are under the same roof! (3 month old Micah being in the infants' room in the same building.) Thanks so much for sharing! I'm super excited for you!!!
-Jamie

Anonymous said...

He is so adorable and cute. I am so happy for your new addition to your family. Reading your story brought tears to my eyes. Congrats again.

Amanda Click

International Mommy said...

Well you know, Aries is already spoken for, but Malaya still needs a good strong Liberian husband.:)
I wonder what he thinks of girls that wear crocs?

Charity