The Call
August 22, 2016 started as many Mondays do. I was rushed, I couldn't find my cellphone, and I decided to leave it at home instead of searching and searching and being late for work. Jeffrey and I had just received a letter from immigration with their approval, so I had asked Jeffrey to email me during the day and on my lunch break, I would send it all to our family coordinator at the adoption agency.
Let me jump back for just one minute here. Jeffrey and I felt like we were getting close, and what I mean by close is we thought we would probably be receiving the call within a year or so. Seriously. If you looked at the unofficially list which we know now is clearly unofficial, it looked like we still had close to 15-20 people ahead of us. We knew many people had switched programs and were on hold for various reasons, but we really did't know for sure where we were. What is funny is about a week before the call, we had talked about our game plan if we ever got the call. We had Jeffrey's number as the primary contact, so we knew they would call him first. I made it very clear that no one should know before he tells me, and that he needs to call me immediately. I told him to call my work and tell them to have someone record me talking the call. We also both agreed not to look at any pictures before we were together. It's nice to have a plan I guess... but many times it doesn't go as planned.
At lunch, I quickly got on my email account emailed our family coordinator and logged off. Since I didn't have my cell phone with me, I had no way of receiving calls. Oh! Right! The plan. They would call Jeffrey and he would call me. Well... Jeffrey had been receiving lots of telemarketing calls throughout the previous week. He saw the call, but he didn't answer because he didn't recognize the number. You see we had talked about making sure to answer any Virginia calls because that is where our adoption agency is based, but our family coordinator was calling us from her own personal cell because she was on maternity leave, but she wanted to make the call to us. So the call did not come from a Virginia area code like we thought it would. Jeffrey ignored two calls, and though there were voicemails, he was busy at work, and he decided to listen to them after got home. He figured they weren't important.
When I got home from work, I got on my laptop because I still had not found my cell phone (this is a normal situation). Jeffrey has an alarm thing where we can alarm my phone, and then I can usually find it in the house. I was getting on my computer to email him to set the alarm off, but I noticed an email from our family coordinator. She said she had called us both several times, and that she really would like to talk to us. My mind went directly to the paperwork we had just sent her. Somehow something must not have been notarized, signed, dated, or a million other things that could possibly go wrong with adoption paperwork. I looked over and saw my phone stuck in the couch, and I grabbed it. I called her back right away.
Kelsey: Hello, this is Kelsey.
Me: Hey, Kelsey. It's Rachel. Sorry we missed your calls.
Kelsey: That's okay. I need to call and ask you if there was anything new that needed to be updated with your family. Kids? Jobs? Home?
Me: No. Since we just updated everything with the state of Missouri, everything is correct.
Kelsey: Great! Okay well, then I am calling you to let you know that we have a referral!
Me:.............................................................................What! Really! Oh my word! I....I ...I have to hangout up with you. Can I call you back! I don't want to know anything without Jeffrey being here.
Kelsey: Sure.
Me: Okay. It should only be 10 minutes at the most.
Shaking and crying, I call Jeffrey. Thankfully he answered because I don't usually call him around that time.
Jeffrey: Hey.
Me: Jeffrey, you have to come home (crying)
Jeffrey: What's wrong! Are you okay.
Me: They have a referral. They have a referral for us.
Jeffrey: What! I am coming!
While Jeffrey rushed home, I found a camera to record, setup my laptop, and had a notebook and pen ready.
Jeffrey and I both took a guess at the gender, and both guessed boy. We had always thought it was going to be a boy.
We sat down and called Kelsey back. She told us all about our son and congratulated us. She sent over three photos and all his papers. We opened the email and after 4 years, 3 months, and 13 days. we stared into the eyes of our beautiful son. The most ordinary day had suddenly turned into one of the best days of our lives.
Zane, we are so in love with you, and we can't wait for the day that we can hold you in our arms and bring you home.
Let me jump back for just one minute here. Jeffrey and I felt like we were getting close, and what I mean by close is we thought we would probably be receiving the call within a year or so. Seriously. If you looked at the unofficially list which we know now is clearly unofficial, it looked like we still had close to 15-20 people ahead of us. We knew many people had switched programs and were on hold for various reasons, but we really did't know for sure where we were. What is funny is about a week before the call, we had talked about our game plan if we ever got the call. We had Jeffrey's number as the primary contact, so we knew they would call him first. I made it very clear that no one should know before he tells me, and that he needs to call me immediately. I told him to call my work and tell them to have someone record me talking the call. We also both agreed not to look at any pictures before we were together. It's nice to have a plan I guess... but many times it doesn't go as planned.
At lunch, I quickly got on my email account emailed our family coordinator and logged off. Since I didn't have my cell phone with me, I had no way of receiving calls. Oh! Right! The plan. They would call Jeffrey and he would call me. Well... Jeffrey had been receiving lots of telemarketing calls throughout the previous week. He saw the call, but he didn't answer because he didn't recognize the number. You see we had talked about making sure to answer any Virginia calls because that is where our adoption agency is based, but our family coordinator was calling us from her own personal cell because she was on maternity leave, but she wanted to make the call to us. So the call did not come from a Virginia area code like we thought it would. Jeffrey ignored two calls, and though there were voicemails, he was busy at work, and he decided to listen to them after got home. He figured they weren't important.
When I got home from work, I got on my laptop because I still had not found my cell phone (this is a normal situation). Jeffrey has an alarm thing where we can alarm my phone, and then I can usually find it in the house. I was getting on my computer to email him to set the alarm off, but I noticed an email from our family coordinator. She said she had called us both several times, and that she really would like to talk to us. My mind went directly to the paperwork we had just sent her. Somehow something must not have been notarized, signed, dated, or a million other things that could possibly go wrong with adoption paperwork. I looked over and saw my phone stuck in the couch, and I grabbed it. I called her back right away.
Kelsey: Hello, this is Kelsey.
Me: Hey, Kelsey. It's Rachel. Sorry we missed your calls.
Kelsey: That's okay. I need to call and ask you if there was anything new that needed to be updated with your family. Kids? Jobs? Home?
Me: No. Since we just updated everything with the state of Missouri, everything is correct.
Kelsey: Great! Okay well, then I am calling you to let you know that we have a referral!
Me:.............................................................................What! Really! Oh my word! I....I ...I have to hangout up with you. Can I call you back! I don't want to know anything without Jeffrey being here.
Kelsey: Sure.
Me: Okay. It should only be 10 minutes at the most.
Shaking and crying, I call Jeffrey. Thankfully he answered because I don't usually call him around that time.
Jeffrey: Hey.
Me: Jeffrey, you have to come home (crying)
Jeffrey: What's wrong! Are you okay.
Me: They have a referral. They have a referral for us.
Jeffrey: What! I am coming!
While Jeffrey rushed home, I found a camera to record, setup my laptop, and had a notebook and pen ready.
Jeffrey and I both took a guess at the gender, and both guessed boy. We had always thought it was going to be a boy.
We sat down and called Kelsey back. She told us all about our son and congratulated us. She sent over three photos and all his papers. We opened the email and after 4 years, 3 months, and 13 days. we stared into the eyes of our beautiful son. The most ordinary day had suddenly turned into one of the best days of our lives.
Zane, we are so in love with you, and we can't wait for the day that we can hold you in our arms and bring you home.
How wonderful! I love this! Maybe you can do the same for Zane. When he is 18 you can give him a box full of all of your wonderful stories and he can read about his journey to the greatest family ever! We cannot wait to meet you Zane!
ReplyDeleteIf I haven't said it enough...
ReplyDeleteSO EXCITED FOR YOU GUYS!!!
Thanks for sharing this part of the story. Can't wait to meet Zane.