Still Basking in the Referral Glow....

The past few days have been more than amazing. They have probably been some of the best days of my life. They have probably been some of the best days of our marriage! I am supremely overwhelmed with joy! I keep telling Wes, "I'm so happy. I'm so happy."  On Friday, Wes and I went to buy a couple of outfits to send ahead of us to our babies.  And there in the middle of Baby Gap, I started crying as I realized all over again that not only did we have a little boy, but we had a little girl too.  I still can't believe it.

The first gift we got for our twins (the day we got our referral) from our dear friends, Aimee & Jeremiah.

We spent most of Thursday calling people all day long, sharing the news over and over again with great joy. And then we all celebrated at Outback Steakhouse that night, as we poured over the 14 pictures we have of our babies. On Friday, we both took off from work and just soaked it all in (as much as you can soak something like this in!). On Saturday, I worked on that video of Wes and I with the ugly crying. You know the one....it's the post just before this one...referral day. :) Saturday afternoon, our pediatrician (or she will be once we have the twins home) called to go over all the twins' medicals and pictures (she is also an international adoption specialist). Overall, even if she is supposed to paint us the bleakest picture possible so we know what to expect, the report was good!!! As far as we can tell at this point, baby boy and baby girl are healthy except for being a little underweight and a little anemic, which often happens with twins. We are optimistic that all is well. And besides that, Wes and I both agreed that these are OUR babies, and there is always a possibility that something could turn up as they grow, but that can happen with biological children also. So we are adopting these two miracles, come what may!!!

Today we officially accepted our two referrals, and now the paperwork is off to Ethiopia so they can set us up with a court date. WOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!! I don't know if I wrote it before, but our best guess is a court date in December, and then an embassy date in January/February. It's possible it could be sooner but not likely. Of course, it was not likely that we would get twins. It was LESS likely we would get a boy AND a girl. So I'm just going to say that it will happen perfectly at the perfect time.

Oh, and here's a whole slew of pictures of us with our acceptance paperwork.  I love Wes's different faces.  Gosh he's so darn hot!  As for me....I'm such a happy dork.

Happy Parents saying YES to their twins!

Happy.

Freaked Out and Happy?

Holy Crap We're Getting Twins!  and  Crazy Happy!

 

Together and In Love.

                                                 

Cheesy Thumbs Up.

Just Plain Cheesy.

                    

Our Referral Acceptance About to Ship Out!

Another Cheesy Nina Face, but oh so Happy!

And for those of you wondering about our expenses....you may have noticed that our thermometers have changed. There used to be one that was full and completely covered. It was our Agency and Foreign Fees thermometer. Well, getting twins has changed that a little, so we had to redo our thermometer to reflect the new costs. Today we sent in a check for $12,800!  But it is SO worth it!  We borrowed the $3300 we were lacking, and planned on reimbursing the borrowed funds by the end of the week, by doing a massive fund raising blitz.  Well, today an insanely beautiful and incredible person asked us how much extra we would need in order to pay off all our agency and foreign fees.  I told this person, $3300.  And that's when they told me they were going to send us a check for $3300 in the mail (the thermometer will soon reflect that!).  Ummmmm......FLOORED.  I started crying (I thought my tear ducts had dried up from the last 3 days of crying....apparently not.).  And then I gathered myself together to talk some more, and further bask in the goodness of God.  I called Wes to tell him the news, and he was blown away too.  And then I cried even harder as I kept thinking, "What makes us so special?  I am so undeserving, and yet God chooses to continue to pour out blessing.  I can't believe He is making it as easy as someone giving us a check for $3300!  I think we might just be His favorites!"  I mean, can you believe it?!!!  Can you believe what God has done?!!!  I hope and pray that everyone who reads this blog sees that adoption is possible for everyone.  God LOVES adoption!!!  That is what we are the product of!  I have heard too many people say that they would love to adopt, but that it is too expensive.  In response, to quote my friend Cydil, "How poor is your God?!"  Wes and I are living testimonies of the good and amazing things God is capable of if we just choose to trust Him and have a little bit of faith! If you have it in your heart to adopt, don't doubt that God can make a way for those finances to come in.

Ah, so I will end here.  My body feels so utterly exhausted from all the wonderful and beautiful emotion of the last few days.  But I will leave you with a song that I have been listening to the last week or so.  I started listening to it a few days before we got our referrals.  And now, I sing even more because my Jesus is just pourin' out His crazy love for me.  It just fills my heart.






*Oh, and for those of you wondering why we haven't put up pictures of our twins' faces, that is because we are not allowed to post anything identifiable at this point, since they will not technically be ours until after court (but they are ours in our hearts now!). As soon as that changes, and we pass court, we will be posting their little faces for all to see. But believe me....they are seriously beautiful!