REFERRAL DAY!!!! The story of August 3rd

If you're reading this, you have likely already heard our news! I've been a wee bit busy the last couple days maintaining my sanity, but we wanted to take the time to record the events of Tuesday now before it loses its freshness.

THE SCENE:

Ted worked late and didn't get home until 2am on Monday night. Lucas didn't get to bed exactly on time either on Monday night. All that being said, we enter the scene of Tuesday morning.. where you find our entire house quiet at 8:30am.. which is HIGHLY unusual. We really aren't sure how it happened really.

So the phone rang a little after 8:30am. I saw it was an 816 phone number that wasn't in my phone. I didn't really think of the referral call, because that would be 6:30am Holt Oregon time and I had been told a month ago by my Missouri case worker that she wouldn't be the one calling me with news. I figured it was somebody confirming an apt or something.

When I heard my case worker Barbara's voice I still wasn't sold. This woman "adoption pranked" me about a month ago on my way home with the zoo with non baby news. But then... she said "I have some good news for you". Then I was sold. I popped up in bed and yelled/whispered Ted that it was baby news and he needed to be happy no matter how tired he was. Ted is rather anti-morning but he made a good attempt.

So we put the phone on speaker and she began to give us the basics. I wasn't surprised at all by the gender because the only way she was calling me with a girl was if 4 baby girl referrals had been given out in the previous 12 hours and nobody said anything... I was much more concerned with the age of this little boy!

When she said born in May I was like "wah??" Very similar to when we received Lucas referral. We were prepared for up to a 12 month old... so the idea of getting a 2 month old (the youngest baby boy this year that we are aware of) was just crazy AMAZING. I think that's when we both went into shock mode. We were sitting there in our undergarments with our two year old yelling for us.. and we're like... hm.. we should shower.

Showers, basic hygiene, and caring for the 2 year old commenced. Lucas was in serious need of breakfast and he was making it very clear.

So we got clean and then sat in front of our computer and prepared to look at his little face and more detailed social history and medical information.

It was so different this time around. With Lucas we were so surprised and we didn't know what it was going to feel like to look at a picture of a little person halfway around the world that was to be your child until it happened.. and it was perfect.

This time, rather than shock and awe of how perfect this little person was, it was more like, "Well there you are, and of course, you are perfect". Ted didn't feel it was necessary to consult with additional medical staff given the info that we have. Ben actually weighed more at birth than Lucas so he is doing well. His head circumference and height were all within normal rage of Ted's expectations.

So then we both got on the phone. Me to my Mom and Dad and Ted with his parents that had to be tracked down at the cabin. This took awhile. During that Lucas had multiple temper tantrums because nobody was paying attention to him, and Steve became increasingly depressed.



We uploaded Ben's pictures to a drive to go to Walmart's one hour photo to get some prints of him in our hands ASAP. There are no photos of this because Lucas screamed and freaked out during most of it in a highly unpleasant way.

Then it was off to IHOP, which is how we Sibley's celebrate pretty much everything.







Once we were full of fatty greasiness, we went back to Walmart to pick up little Ben's photos. We really love the quality of them. You can see his little baby zits and newborn hair fuzz and everything! You can also see the most sorry case for a "onesie" I have ever seen outside of Haiti. Note that I will be bringing multiple packs of infant onesies in my donations to the Durame care center!!

It was at this point when our day became very anti-climatic. We got home, I sat down to write big emails to family and friends. Ted laid down because he was way behind on sleep and needed to leave again for work. That night I sat there, starred at my little guys face, painted my toenails, and reflected on such a life changing day. That is really the only way to describe it.. to just sit there and praise God for answering your prayers in the most perfect way, with wonderful timing, and allowing my husband to be there with me instead of at work.

We then made more plans to celebrate!