It's a Boy!

It's about time to get updated on the last two days around here. And if you're about to scroll down through this post in search of a photo, please stop. There will not be a photo. As much as I would love to show you a half dozen very adorable pictures of the little man, complete with the captions we've assigned to them ("do I look funny in this shirt?", "Oh Julie is so hilarious when she makes that face" and "For the love of God, STOP taking my picture" are a few of our favorite shots) I cannot post any photos on the internet. Ethiopia is very protective of the privacy of their children, and this child is not mine until a judge halfway around the world says so. People have actually been banned from adopting a child in Ethiopia when they posted referral photos, so we're just not gonna go there. There will be no identifying information on this blog, and if I share any information with you in the real world, please do not post it or e-mail it anywhere. Okay? Okay.

But if you stop me in the street and ask me anything (like what time it is) be prepared for the full photo tour to come out of my purse. Because this little guy is stinkin' adorable!

So, back up to 4:30pm on Monday. You know, that time of day when you start pretending to work while really watching the clock incessantly? The time of day when AGCI offices are actually closed. That's when the obnoxious beeping ringtone for AGCI went off on my cell phone. Dumb me, I totally assumed it was Christy calling to apologize for forgetting the bi-weekly update or something. You know, because she always calls me to tell me that stuff in person. After a little hemming and hawing on her part she breaks into the little "So I have a little surprise for you" schpeal. My heart heads up to my throat and I'm thinking "No, no, there is a mistake. I am not #1 on the list and there is no way I'm getting a referral when I haven't paid my dues sitting at the top of the list for weeks".

So first she asks if I'm interested in hearing about this little boy they have. So I stammer out a few dumb questions trying to figure out what I'm not understanding here, because of course I want to hear about him. It seems this little guy just had his first birthday last month, which makes him 13 months old. Gasp! He missed the magic number by a few weeks and landed himself outside the textbook 0-12 month age category that is often the arbitrary age cutoff for an infant referral. You have to pick an age limit, it's part of your homestudy and immigration paperwork, and it's not easy to change it after the fact. 0-12 months is sort of the default age bracket our agency uses for families hoping to adopt an infant. Since I had been very insistent with Christy from day one that I didn't want to have a firm upper age limit on my "parameters" (and she tried hard to make me state some, I just couldn't), and my homestudy is approved for a wider age range, everything aligned perfectly with Baby "A". And my boys will only be 5 years apart in age, which is in the upper range of "normal", perfect!

She gave me all of his information (including spelling his cool African name because I was clueless) and being the neurotic fool that I am, I wrote down every darn detail. Only to get it all in an e-mail 5 minutes later. His name is pretty cool (even before I started pronouncing it correctly) and get this... his last name is the same name that two men in my family were born with. And it's not something totally American like "Daniel", nope, it's totally obscure and you don't know anyone with that name. Too funny.

She told me about his "social" background, and shared information about his family and how he came to be at the orphanage. This information is very personal and will be kept pretty private, it's also incredibly sad. But then what story of an orphan isn't sad? When she started going over his medical info, she had his weight in kilos. Being a dork, I converted it for her to pounds. She was all surprised that I got it right, I don't think I've ever told her that I was a dork, I think she knows now. He's pretty little, at least compared to giganto boy snoring in the other room right now. But he's so perfectly proportioned and adorable. A little bit of curly hair, long skinny baby legs, and just two little teeth starting to show on the bottom.

I told Christy I would call her back in the morning and let her know if I wanted to move forward, and we ended the call. That's when I actually got to look at the photos. There were 17 photos. And I was in love! Since it was now 5pm, I'm sure Christy was high tailing it out of the office so I couldn't call her back to get his paperwork in the mail, like NOW! I will have to wait until Wednesday to get started my new paper pile.

Instead I called my Dad, then I called my Mom (no answer) and I called my sister.

It was then time to head off to C's soccer practice. I had his Super Brother T-shirt hiding in the glove compartment for this occasion, and I printed out a photo of his new baby brother to show him. When I got to the gym he was getting a drink of water and I pulled him over to share the news. I showed him his new shirt and he put it on right away and ran to show his team his picture of the baby. As I walked over to the sideline, a family who just brought home a little baby boy from Hannah's Hope 3 months ago was there and they knew immediately what was going on (I hadn't actually had a conversation with them yet at this point, EVER). They were so sweet and excited for us. They told their kids that we were going to see Almaz and get our baby from Hannah's Hope, and those kids were very impressed. Small world! Their 6 month old boy weighs exactly as much as Baby "A". So that gave me a visual on how little "A" is.

After C went to bed I sent everything off to the international adoption pediatrician who has to review it before I can "officially" accept. Our consultation is set for Thursday evening.

Then this morning, at 8:01 I called Christy back and ever so casually suggested she return my call. She doesn't actually get to the office until 8:30, so we didn't have our chat until closer to 10. That's when I hit her with a barrage of much more intelligent questions, and from there the paperwork starts flying. Hopefully we'll be "official" on Friday and God willing get through court the first time around. "A" is almost walking, I've missed the entire first year of his milestones, I hope I don't have to miss much more.