"Is this a good time?"

Those are best words you want to hear from your social worker when you are waiting for an adoption referral. It means they have very important news and want your full attention. For anyone who has waited (and waited and waited and waited), this is the phrase that makes your heart stop, then start racing. This is when all your basic abilities cease. This is when, for the life of you, you can't remember how to dial a 3-way call on your phone (despite practicing for months and months). You can't find that beautiful notebook you set by the phone to write down all of the important information. Instead, you grab a crayon and the back of an envelope and start to scribble.

Our social worker was very patient and explained that she'd be sending an email with all of the data we were discussing, so we could just listen. Better yet, she was sending a photo - a photo of the little lovely who would forever change our family.

3 years ago, on the morning of January 9, we got, "THE CALL". A beautiful and tiny bundle of joy, not even 3 months old, was waiting for us in Ethiopia. We had a DAUGHTER. B had a sister. We were now a family of four.

~10 weeks

1 year

2 years3 years