One year ago today.....

It was one year ago today at 4:00 that Lauren called from AWAA saying she had a file of a baby girl she wanted to talk to me about!


It was last year on Oct 3 that AWAA got a batch of SN children....33 to be exact. It was the first time I actually posted in the journal section of our website wondering if our baby girls file was sitting on a desk in Virginia. Here's what I posted on Oct 3, 2007....


Oh my….where to begin? Last month we were anxiously waiting to see the SN referrals come. On the last Friday AWAA sent out an email letting the families know that they had not received any yet and that the CCAA would be on vacation the first week of October. They did mention that sometimes they will work the weekend prior to a week long vacation so there was a chance still that they may receive the referrals. Well on Monday morning we got an email saying they got 33 referrals!!! That is a big group!!!! Here is what it said…..


Dear Interested Families,
We are thrilled to announce the receipt of 33 new special needs referrals! We don't have any specifics on the children right now, but once we are finished processing the referrals, we will send another email out with more details.


The Special Needs team asks that you refrain from questions during this time, as we will be working diligently to process the referrals. We are unable to answer individual questions about the referrals we received. In order to be fair, we will notify the entire Interested Families list with details about this group as soon as possible. At that time, we will also let families know when referral calls will begin.


So today when I got home from dropping Robin off at school I had another email from AWAA this is what it had to say…..


Dear Interested Families, We know that you've been eagerly waiting to hear more details about the new Special Needs referrals. Typically, we don't have this information available so soon, but the translations were completed very quickly this time! This has sped up the review process and will also allow us to begin making referral calls sooner. The earliest we anticipate beginning referral calls is Friday, October 5th. We appreciate your patience as we continue to process the referrals and begin the matching process.

We would like to share the following details with you regarding this group of referrals:


Number of referrals: 33

Number of females: 19

0-2 year range: 14
3-4 year range: 4
5-6 year range: 1
7-8 year range: 0

Number of males: 14

0-2 year range: 6
3-4 year range: 4
5-6 year range: 3
7-8 year range: 1


The children have various special needs and some have more than one special need. When matching children with families, we take several factors into consideration, the most important factors being a family's log in date, a family's special needs application date, and if there is a referral that matches what a family has requested on the Special Needs application. With 100-120 families on the Interested Families on the list, only a percentage of families will receive calls for a referral. We will notify families when all referral calls have been made. Additionally, we will send an email out to all Interested Families with the children that have not yet been matched.


So needless to say we are beside ourselves praying and wondering if our baby Grace’s picture is sitting on a desk in Virginia at AWAA office! That would be just amazing!!! Please keep AWAA, Grace and our family in your prayers.


When we didn't call on the 5th or 6th or 7th I knew that most of the calls had probably been made and the chances of us getting matched with our daughter this time was pretty unlikely. I did know that they were going to finish making calls on Monday because Friday the 8th was a holiday, Columbus Day. Robin had the day off from school so I wasn't sitting on the couch waiting for the phone to ring. I had gone to town with Robin and we had stopped to pick up a coffee for Mike at Dunkin Donuts when my phone rang.....it was Lauren from AWAA!!!!! She wanted to know if it was a good time to talk. I was trying to pass my money to the lady at the window : ), but I said Yes! It was a great time to talk! My heart about hit the floor because I couldn't believe what I was hearing....


The conversation went something like this....


Well Mrs. Davis we have a file of a baby girl that we would like to talk to you about. She is 12 months old, her birthday is Sept 18, 2006. She is a very pretty little girl. I'm sure you're wondering what her special need is?...... They said she's little, with minor developmental delay. All her paper work looks great. Her medical file looks wonderful. Why don't to you talk to your husband and call me back if you want to review her file.


I told her I didn't even need to wait to talk to him because I knew we would want to review it! She laughed and said OK, I'll email you the referral paperwork with her pictures once you read it call me and let me know if you want to proceed with her adoption.


Robin by this point had figured out that we had just got the "call" and was beside herself. It so happened that she had a camera with her and took these pictures...

I was 5 miles away from the house when Lauren called. I couldn't wait to get home and tell Mike and see our daughters face for the first time! That caused me to break the law and drive about 60 mph to get home! Poor Mike didn't know what was wrong. He actually thought I hit someone and that's why I was acting so crazy. When I drove in the drive way I didn't even shut the car off. I jumped out and ran inside crying....I couldn't even talk. Robin is standing there smiling and said....Dad we just got our referral call! Then it all made sense to him ( me acting like I was). We both ran down stairs to his office and looked at our email and sure enough there was a message in our In box from AWAA. This is what it said along with the first pictures we saw of our daughter.....

Dear Michael & Tonya,

Attached are the photos and translated medical information for Fu Ni Shuai. Please take some time together to review this initial information.

Note: At this time, the attached information is to be kept confidential and should only be shared with medical professionals, social worker(s), and individuals who are essential to the assessment process.

Please call or email me no later than 4:00 pm EST Tuesday, October 9th to indicate if you would like to either review the referral information further or decline this referral.

If you do decide to review the information further, I will email you the Chinese referral documents and any additional photos (if applicable). You will then have 10 business days to consult a Physician and/or International Specialist, discuss the referral with your Social Worker, and look over the information more thoroughly. Please know that your family will remain on the Interested Families list should you decide not to move forward with this particular referral.

As you take the time to prayerfully consider this referral information, please let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing back from you soon!

Blessings,

Lauren Barnett
Asia Family Coordinator
Special Needs Coordinator

We were in love at first site! And are in love more than ever with this little girl! She is a precious gift from the Lord and we are so blessed the Lord chose us to be her parents!

A fun interesting fact....When AWAA called with Noelle's referral it was 4:10ish in the afternoon on Columbus Day. I gave birth to Robin on Columbus Day 1994 at 4:11 am. how cool is that? To us it was another "signature of God" on this adoption!

Here is a picture of our little Noelle today...

Noelle holding her referral picture.

(poor baby has a sore on her bottom lip & chin)

Happy one year referral anniversary Noelle....WE LOVE YOU!