The Referral!!!

After we completed the home study process we were told by AIAA that it would take 3-4 months for a referral to arrive. The wait times for a referral from Korea are a fraction of those for other countries. It was just over three months when we got the call that our referral was in. Even though it was a relatively short wait, patience were difficult to find some days (nothing has changed on this front!). All of this anxiety went out the window the day we got our referral call.

We received an email from our case worker late on Tuesday November 9th. Her email indicated that she did not have our new phone number, (even though we updated it with the agency) and needed us to call her ASAP. For a brief second I thought to myself that maybe this could be our referral but I didn't want to get my hopes up. When I read the email to my husband he immediately said, "it's our referral!" I completely froze and couldn't breathe and had to make my husband call our case worker. I could hear our case worker through the phone when she said that she had a referral for us for a little boy. I was stunned that it was actually happening and was SO excited to see his pictures. However, we had to wait until the following evening before we would be able to view the referral and see his sweet face for the first time. The rest of the night I was so excited and my mind was racing! I didn't want to wait another minute. I just wanted to see his face.

Our case worker invited us to her home the following evening, November 10th, where she would have our referral waiting for us. The day couldn't have gone by more slowly. The time came and we headed to her home (which is just ten minutes from our own). My heart was pounding the entire way there and my palms were sweating. I just couldn't wait to learn about our son and to finally, after so long, see his face. As soon as we got to our case worker's home, she sat us down and asked us if we wanted to see pictures first or view his file. We both wanted to look at his pictures first. She handed us 8 pictures of the most beautiful little baby boy that I have ever seen. At that moment, all I could think was that I was looking at my son. It is a feeling I can't really put into words. Our case worker then handed us a packet of all of his information. I first saw his birth date which is June 10th, 2009. Being that it was November 10th, he was exactly 5 months on that day. We quickly learned that he was a healthy and very happy baby. I was so happy that one of the pictures was a picture taken with him and his foster mom. I felt so much better being able to see the woman who is taking care of him. Our case worker walked us through the rest of his information, but I was so fixated on his pictures that I missed most of what was being said. I couldn't get over the fact that this beautiful baby was going to be my son.

Before accepting his referral we had to have his medical history reviewed by a doctor within the U.S. Our case worker gave us a list of doctors that could review his information. As soon as we got home that evening I called one of the doctors on the list and we scanned and emailed her all of his information. The following day she called us to inform us that he is very healthy! That was a great relief. Later that day we called the agency to officially accept this beautiful, sweet, and healthy baby boy as our son. We are so lucky!