The Referral Day Story

The first thing I did last week was to check Rumo*r Qu*een and log into our October LID FB group to see if anyone from Europe had posted they got the call. I even got dressed in red (considered a lucky color in China) to bring on the referrals. When there was still nothing, not a word on Friday morning I was a little disappointed. By mid-morning I had started to convince myself that I would have to wait through the weekend for our referral and went to do some retail therapy while the kids were still in school. I got wild and bought a yogurt maker. Oh, I may have also stopped in and bought matching outfits for the three kids for their first photo shoot (but you didn't read that husband).

It made me feel better but didn't stop me from hitting refresh on my email to see if our agency sent out the "Stork Had Landed" email. By the time 2 p.m. EST came, any remaining hope of receiving our referral had gone. I went about my day, picked up Chloe from school and prepared to take the kids to their afternoon activities, soccer and swimming.

It was at Oliver's soccer camp that I reached for my cell phone to take some photos of Oliver kicking the soccer ball that I saw a message popped up on my home screen from another waiting parent from our agency. It said, "Just got the call!!! All you with GWCA, calls are being made NOW!".

At first I thought it was a joke. Where was the email they sent out to alert you that calls were being made. No way I thought. I was at soccer practice. They couldn't be calling.

Then it hit me and I started to freak a little. What if we didn't get the email from our agency because our referral didn't come? What if we got skipped?  Panic.  I told Chloe, "We have to go, we're getting the referral call for your sister!". And then I thought, Oliver wouldn't agree to leave soccer. He was having too much fun. I could wait another 30 minutes surely. What's 30 minutes when we have waited over 6 years?

Then, Chloe said, "I don't want to miss swimming! I have state championships tomorrow. I want to go to swimming!"

What? I could wait another 30 minutes, I couldn't wait another 90 minutes. So, when soccer practice was over, we were out of there like a flash and in the car on our way to drop Chloe off at swimming. It was a kiss and fly, you can see the photos when you get home. Then, Matt called. He was walking down the street to the house. Should he answer the phone if it rings?

I may have been speeding through our idyllic little village at this time and was probably doing 40 mph as I hit the driveway of our house and came to a screeching halt, unlatching Oliver's car seatbelts and making a mad dash for the door. Once inside I grabbed the printed "The Call" questions and a pen, set the video camera up and looked to the phone to see the red voicemail message lit up.

Matt had walked in by this point. Oliver had picked up his DS and I was FREAKING OUT!!! Dinner was the last of my concerns and everybody was hungry and grouchy as it was 6:15 p.m. Matt went to the kitchen and got some celery and blue cheese. CELERY AND BLUE CHEESE. Do you know how much noise celery makes when it is being eaten and he wanted to take the referral call while eating celery? I WAS IN SUPER FREAK OUT MODE.

Celery. Really?!

I got enough gumption to press the "play" button on the voicemail and heard the voice of Deidra from GWCA saying they had some exciting news for us. This was the call and then she told us to call. They would be waiting for us and then gave her extension #, which I forgot to write down. I realized this, of course, after we had sat down to call Great Wall. I had to hang up, go back and listen to the message again. It took several times calling the number and extension to get through. I may have been near hysterics at this point.

Matt and Oliver having a good time while I freak out trying to get the phone extension for our agency off the answering machine.

But, we did get through!! And we got the call (or we made the call)!! You can see Matt's reaction when we finally got through to speak to Kristin & Deidra....

And here's our reaction when they told us how young she was and that she had the same tulip lips as her big sister....

You can see I am in a much happier/less stressed mood once we received all the information. Here's my sheet I was writing on....

After we hung up with our agency, we waited a few minutes for the email to come through with her photo and some basic, translated information. While we waited, we looked up information about her province, Heilongjiang.

She way north, surrounded by Russia to the north and east and Mongolia to the west.

Then, we saw her photos....

 

We picked up Chloe from swimming shortly after and she was super-excited to find out about her sister. It seems that had been all she spoke of at swim practice!

We ordered Chinese for dinner and read up on her province and through the brief materials we were emailed from our agency. Next, we wait for the FedEx envelope to arrive with more detailed  information and the actual printed photos.