REFERRAL DAY!!!!!

I have waited so long to type those words!! REFERRAL DAY!!! 

All I can say is He did it!   No, God’s not our personal Genie, but HE has come through in a big way here at the Baxter home. We have been praying for a referral by September 11th, and HE DID IT. Why September 11th you ask? September 11th is the Ethiopian New Year, and Faithlynn’s Dedication date at church. We really wanted to celebrate both of these events knowing the face of our Baby E while surrounded by friends and family, even though it's such a somber day in America. 


Just when Brad and I were at one of our weariest moments, God showed up to remind us who is in control! (There is so much depth behind this story, but I will save that for another post!)

We received our REFERRAL for Baby E at 2:51 p.m. on Friday, September 9, 2011. We will never forget it! 

The call when a little something like this:

I was upstairs rocking and resting with Faithlynn dreaming about our sweet little E and losing hope that we'd have a referral anytime soon…Brad was outside getting things set up for her Dedication after-party having his own heart-to-heart with God. . . My cell phone rings and startles me from a peaceful rest.  It was my mom to go over some Dedication party details. After speaking with her for a few minutes, my call-waiting beeps. I thought it was one of our boys calling to say that football practice was cancelled. I hit ‘answer’ on my phone, and then looked at the number . . . AREA CODE 828…

Surprisingly, I didn’t get too excited, because this couldn’t be THE CALL. Referrals were at a standstill!  I answered and our Case Manager said hello.. and there was an odd silence on the phone. She said, I want to tell you about a little girl. . .

Time literally stopped… I don’t exactly remember how I made it out of a rocking recliner, down 2 flights of stairs and outside to find Brad, all while holding a sleeping baby and a cell phone, but I took one look at Brad, he looked at me as I pointed frantically to the phone (still while holding a sleeping baby), and we both lost it.  God heard us.  He really heard us, our cries, our weariness!  It was totally surreal, and we will both never forget it.  Brad later told me he asked for a miracle at 2:45 pm that day… the call came at 2:51 pm.

Our Case Manager told us about a sweet little girl who is 14 months old who needs a forever family. She thought perhaps she might be ‘too old’ for us and said we didn’t need to look at her information, if we wanted to wait for a younger child. Are you kidding me?? God hand-picked this little girl for us… I can’t imagine saying no.

Here’s what we can share publically -- A little girl – 14 months old – sweetest – face – ever!  Biggest eyes and longest eyelashes ever! She is 7 months older than Faith. We can’t post pictures of her until after we would pass court, but I have plenty of them, and can show you in person and let me warn you… she will melt your heart!

We are still in awe and time still seems to be standing still. All I can say is that the wait has been hard, but it has also prepared our hearts for the next journey of waiting again…for paperwork…for court…for travel and for the embassy appointment. We were told to protect our hearts because sometimes referrals fall through, children become sick, adoptions stop, etc., but it is so hard. We are trying to look at this like a pregnancy – it’s hard to wait and things are uncertain, but the reward is so worth it in the end!

I will post later about the events leading up to our referral and about our first delay (post-referral). Please continue to keep us and Baby E in your prayers. We need to get her home quickly… she needs a forever family now!

Celebrating and praising God in a big way!!