THE BIG ONE!!!

It is with shaking hands, sobbing eyes, and a FULL heart that I ask you to rejoice with our family as we received our referral today!

I got a call at school this morning at 9:15 from my dear hubby calmly explaining that our social worker at AGCI had matched us with a child (WHAT!) and she was emailing her medical file and info to me in 5 minutes. I was anything but calm. Those poor third graders in Mrs. M's class were wondering what I was so excited about and why I was crying! I told my dh to get out to school stat because I didn't want to see her without him. Waiting the ten minutes for him to get there were the longest ten minutes of my life. There on my computer was her file waiting for us to open. OUT OF THE BLUE-the wait to see her face is over! Miraculous that today we laid eyes on our Jillian for the first time!! She is the most beautiful, plump nineteen month old I have ever seen. I wish I could post her picture, but we have to wait until she is officially ours. God is so incredibly good to allow us this tremendous blessing! Oh the love-it is just indescribable!

Where do we go from here? We are taking "her" (Chinese paperwork) to her first pediatrician appointment this afternoon. Her medical file has to be reviewed by a doctor before we officially accept her. We have filled out more paperwork asking for permission to adopt her from the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs. We wait (gotta love that word) for approval. It will probably be six or so months at best until we can get her home, but until then I can see her face and her chubby hands while clinging to the pictures of her everyday.

Thank you so much for walking this journey with us! We are overwhelmed by your love and can't wait to get Jillian home to meet all of you!