The Call

This morning at 9:50 the phone rang. For the last 3 months I have been waiting for this call. Every time I would answer the phone, I would glance at the caller id and secretly wish it showed Children's Hope International. This morning, it finally did. I have read other blogs and talked with other adoptive parents about their call. I have heard many reactions, from screaming to crying, or even just plain hysteria. I have wondered what it would be like to hear the words of our consultant when it was my turn for the call.

This morning, Monday October 27, 2008 at 9:50 we entered the next step to bring our daughter home. Here is a glimpse of the call from where I was standing.

Phone ringing

Glance at the caller id: Children's Hope International

holding breath, me: "hello"

voice: "hello, may I speak with Erika?"

trying very hard to sound calm, me: "yes, this is Erika"

voice: "good morning this is Rebecca with CHI. How are you doing this morning?"

standing very still, me: "you tell me."

Rebecca: "Well you are going to be doing good. We received your seeking confirmation letter."

(not really sure what I said, but the tears were pouring and I think I retained enough thought to say thank you.)

Rebecca filled in a few more details and confirmed our address and emails so she could overnight our packet to us and email the tracking numbers. Honestly I don't remember the details except the packet will be here tomorrow morning.

(still don't know what words came out, but lots of thank yous here.)

****end the call****

Screaming, no. Crying, yes. Not a whole lot of rational thought. Just relief. I wish I could regale you with something funny or silly that I did or said. Nope. It didn't matter how long I waited and wished and planned for the call. The call came, and all the work we had done for the past 370 days was in that phone call. Our call finally came. It was perfect.

Tomorrow we will begin our next steps.