While we were sleeping

Thursday morning I was armed and ready with the phone for the moment both girls were up. I think they were wondering what was going on and why I would not feed them or turn on the TV until we called. Actually, we had not even officially told them yet. So with them I focused on calling their cousins and talking before it was bedtime in Ethiopia. I wanted to try to wait until evening when we could tell them together.

We called and while we were sleeping they had been busy. The Director of Celebrate Children International (CCI) was able to get more detailed results of Samuel's testing he had been through. The results were not anything that would deter us. We were ready to begin this process. We were given instructions of who to call in Florida and what to explain. So off we went.

I immediately began calling CCI. After a couple of attempts and malfunctioning answering machines I resigned myself to e-mail. I was looking forward to talking to a real person so I was a bit bummed. I sent my e-mail and began our day we had planned. For the next hour I would go between helping the girls get ready for our day and checking e-mail. Back and forth...back and forth...until I received a "Read:" notification from the e-mail. Ahhh Ha! She may be in the office! Sooo of course I had to just try calling one more time before we were off to the movies where I would be limited in my telephone abilities.

To my surprise she answered! I immediately started stuttering through my words and trying to calm myself. I'm sure I left a memorable first impression. I got myself together, formed understandable sentences and was able to communicate. I explained the situation, that my cousin had talked to the Director, used the right buzz words and we were in...literally. Since there is such an urgency to get Samuel out of the country and get this process going she was very helpful. While we were talking she e-mailed me two sets of information to get us started. Given my excitement she wanted to make sure I did not forget anything. Once I opened the e-mails to my surprise she went ahead and made some special provisions that would help speed things up for us. Praise God!