When You Least Expect It

As you can probably tell from my last post, I have been over the waiting.  Months of no news to report. Me feverishly stalking our agency's internal forum to see who has gotten referrals lately.  I pretty much reached a point where I was completely consumed by thinking about the adoption process. And to be honest, this didn't not make me a particularly pleasant human being.  On the morning of October 8, I decided that I simply couldn't go on functioning like that.  I was so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I wasn't being the wife, mother, friend and employee that I wanted to be.  So on a Monday morning, I decided to let it go.  Knowing full well that God has a very perfect plan in place, I decided that I was going to put the notion of seeing our daughter out of my head. Until Christmas.  That timeline fit with what seemed to be going on around us and I concluded that would be a pretty awesome Christmas present. 

I pulled into my garage the evening of October 8 and it was a beautiful day outside. Madeline scrambled out of the car to climb on her bike and enjoy the favorable weather.  As I was gathering our belongings to empty at the car, I just happened to have my cell phone in my hand when it started ringing.  A blocked number showed up, which normally I would never answer.  I have no idea why I decided to answer that call, other than it was so nice outside and Madeline was entertaining herself, so I figured why not.

It was THE CALL. 

The one where a familiar voice was telling me that she had a baby girl for us. 

Our baby girl.  And I mean a BABY baby.


She rattled off a few details and I'm pretty sure I sounded like a moron on the phone because I was so in shock. 

As soon as we hung up, I hit the pavement, sobbing.  Madeline and my next door neighbor came over to make sure I was ok. 

It took about 20 minutes for Brad to get home and for pictures to be emailed to us.  The whole thing was kind of surreal. 

The minute we saw the thumbnail of her face, we were in love.  Three pictures that have been glued to my side ever since. 

We drove that night to Meijer to get prints made.  Madeline and I were whooping and shouting with joy at the top of our lungs. (Brad managed to maintain some composure.) 

I woke up the next morning convinced it was all a dream.  But her picture still sits on my nightstand. And the bathroom counter. And in my cubicle. And on my computer. And phone. 

There won't be much to report for quite a while.  And we can't put any more specific details on our blog because we are currently going through a legal process over "there."  But if you see us in person, I'm apologizing in advance for shoving pictures of our gorgeous baby girl in your face. 

Time to hurry up and wait some more! But at least we have a beautiful face and name to pray for while we wait.

The Waiting Place

...for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come,
or a plane to go or the mail to come,
or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.
Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a sting of pearls,
or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls,
or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.
NO! That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying.
You’ll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

--Dr. Seuss

 

That about says it all right now.

I think I've been asked about 567 times in the last month how our adoption is going. The good news is that we're all done with paperwork! Now we just sit back....and wait...and pray for our future child. Waiting for an email saying that there's a baby girl needing a family. Waiting to see pictures. Waiting to send our humble little gifts that we've compiled to comfort her until she comes home. Don't get me wrong - I love that people care enough to check in with us and are genuinely excited to hear about our progress. Several of our good friends that are going through this process have already received referalls for for their children, primarily because they don't want an infant. So we're just waiting....

Family Pictures (Finally)

After nearly 2 years without family pictures (seriously, my MBA interrupted everything!), we finally got some new family shots.  After months and months of severe drought in Indiana, all it took was the Long family headed outdoors for some family pictures to bring the rain. 

A graduation present: my new necklace! From The Vintage Pearl

Heather's muffintop, also courtesy of grad school.

Love this picture. Hate Maddie's facial expression!

Someone at work commented "It looks like you're missing someone.." We are!

And immediately after this shot, the house we were in was struck by lightening.  Awesome.

Photos from Broad Photography, recently relocated from Cincinnati to Fishers.

DONE.

As in done with school.

 Finished.

 Complete.

 Graduated. 

Master's Degree in hand.

Holy Cow.

Welcome New Readers!

We had the opportunity to spread the word on our blog and Amazon deal to several hundred people over the last few weeks, which is ridiculously awesome! 

 So if you're new to our site, welcome.

 Feel free to shop Amazon by clicking the link in the upper right hand corner. (Make sure to empty your cart ahead of time!) 

 I will be posting updates about last week's exciting fundraising opportunities soon, but for now I have a paper to write -the LAST one of my MBA!

Exciting and Urgent Update!

As you might know, the Long family spends most of our Saturday mornings enjoying breakfast at Chick-Fil-A.  Let’s just say they know us well there.  We are so excited to partner with our local Chick-Fil-A for our first (and probably not our last) big fundraiser.  If you are in the Hamilton County area on Thursday, May 17, please join us at the Chick-Fil-A in Noblesville for a fundraiser to support our adoption! This promotion is available ALL day from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. for dine-in, drive-thru, or pick-up catering.  All you have to do is show up, give them our flyer, and enjoy.  In return, Chick-Fil-A will donate a portion of your sale to our adoption fund.  Everybody wins! If you’d like to attend and I haven’t already thrown myself in front of you, which is very unlikely at this point J, e-mail me or leave a comment and I will make sure you get a flyer.

Praying for a great turnout and the chance to see a lot of our friends in one place!    

Back from the Dead

If you have seen or talked to me in the last two months, then you probably know why I have been negligent in my blogging as of late.   The grand finale of my MBA program literally sucked every waking moment out of me (and most of the sleeping ones as well).  I did have to take a brief hiatus from adoption paperwork just to manage my job, family and school commitments, but we’re getting back on track.  I’ll post some pictures and updates about a few things that have happened this spring, but I mainly wanted to say that we’re still alive – and expecting an influx of new blog readers! This week we mailed 150 letters to our Indiana friends letting them know about a few upcoming fundraisers.  My very good friend Janice created beautiful little cards to let people know to shop our Amazon link, which we were able to include in the mailing.   So if you’re new to the blog, Welcome. If you’re not, thanks for hanging around.