Our Christmas Gift

We got the greatest Christmas gift this year...

We received our referral!!!

What does this mean?  

This means, we have an adorable little boy living in the DRC that we are pursuing (via all the paperwork) to become our son.  

We had talked with our attorney and knew things were close and we would be receiving an email with details any day...  Todd was at work and I was at church with our kids when I received the email.  I stared at my phone for a few minutes trying to decide what to do.  I SO badly wanted Todd and I to open the email and see our son's sweet face together but I also was DYING to see his face right then!  I worked on my "surprised" face for a few minutes and decided I couldn't pull off peaking and then acting like I hadn't seen the pictures later.  I called Todd and told him he needed to get home ASAP!  2 very.long.hours.later - he was finally home.  It worked out well because my mom and brother were at our house and able to take video and pictures for us.  (The video probably won't be posted because a certain gross adorable 4 year old girl was picking her nose and eating the seemingly yummy boogers during the entire video.  We obviously were a little preoccupied to notice.)

Anyways...  

Did I mention that he is just precious???  

We received 4 pictures of him (which are all a little blurry).  

I wish so badly we could share the pictures of our sweet boy with you on the blog, but for safety and security reasons, we are not able to do that.

He is just adorable though!

He is said to be around 4 months old but his pictures definitely make him look much closer to 7-8 months old.  Age discrepancy is common to see in DRC adoptions and something we expected.  

Looks like we're going to have 2 crazy boys close in age!  Xavier just turned 10 months old so we're guessing they are about 2-3 months apart.  Our little guy was placed in an orphanage when he was found but has already been moved to a foster home which is a huge blessing. 

What's next???

We wait.  

We're waiting on 2 initial documents and then our attorney can take our case to court.  We've hit the "hurry up and wait" phase of the adoption.  

Please pray with us as we walk through these next few months of waiting.  

We couldn't wait to see his face and know who our son was...  

but let me tell you.. Wow!  It's hard to wait now!!!

We look at his pictures throughout the day and share them with everyone we run into, we think and talk about him all day and our arms ache to hold him.  

My devotion book (Jesus Calling by Sarah Young) for today said this:

"Trust Me by relinquishing control into My hands.  Let go, and recognize that I am God....  When you bring Me prayer requests, lay out your concerns before Me.  Then thank Me for the answers that I have set into motion long before you can discern results." 

Please join us in praying for our little boy and while you're at it -

thank God for placing him in our family and for bringing him home to us.