May 12, 2005 to May 12, 2009

I have many things that need to be blogged, but I need to first acknowledge the anniversary that we had yesterday. The picture above came to us on May 12, 2005. The first glimpse of our son, the referral. Our social worker, Don Smith, called me at work (Alta Woods UMC, in Mississippi) and asked if I had access to a computer. I told yes, and he said to look in my email box. This picture was waiting for me. Don reassured me that it was a boy and all the information that he had about Master Suraj Balack (which wasn't a lot). As in all adoptions we were then asked to weigh the information that we were given and say yes or no to the referral. I wanted to scream an affirmative yes, but Andreas didn't even know yet, so I waited. I got off the phone with Don and asked for permission to leave my post to get to my husband. Of course that was granted and I drove to see Eas. He knew something was up when I walked into his work (also a church secretary at that time). I told him that he was a father of a son. We looked at the picture together and I cried (of course). Then we did what every adoption social worker (including myself) tells you to do, we called up the doc that was helping us and asked her to look over the medical reports. With the little info that we had it was fine, at that time we also had only 24 hours to give an answer. So as we all know the answer was a huge YES!!!!

It seems amazing that 4 years could have gone by so quickly. We wouldn't actually be united with Sam until December 28th, 2005, but I wanted to acknowledge the day we first saw Sam. The picture below was taken this Easter, only a few weeks ago, as he was dressed in his Nepali clothes. He has grown so much and I cannot image my life without this little firecracker.

As for the new adoption, we found out that our paperwork was officially on Nepali soil yesterday, exactly 4 years from Sam's referral. Seems so appropriate. So now we play the waiting game to get logged in and processed to receive another referral, this time of a girl. I look forward to blogging on her 4th anniversary someday. Keep praying for us and all those waiting for their children. Please also pray for the children that are left where they are and will never have parents, they always weigh on my heart.

Blessings,
Laurie