OUR REFERRAL CALL!!!!!!!

Little did we know that what this day would hold before we walked into Epcot!
Where we were standing when we got the call.

Listening intently to every word about our sweet little girl!

I can't believe that I am even writing these words!! It is official! We finally received our referral for a sweet little 4 year old girl. The best part about it is that it happened at one of favorite places, Disney World!! So here is our story. It was the morning of February 23rd and was our first full day after arriving at Disney. We were going to be at the parks for five full days and I had decided in advance that I was not going to take my phone in with me during any of those days. I didn't want any distractions and I just wanted to focus on our time together and not be burdened with carrying around my phone. I sent my parents and sister an email telling them that if they needed to get a hold of me to call Matt's phone because he would have his. That taken care of we set off for Epcot. We were standing in line for a new attraction called "Habit Heroes." We were told it was about health and fitness, and since I am a health fanatic I said lets do it. So there we were standing in line and Matt had his phone out to call his dad when he gets a call. We look at the number and when I realize who it is I could hardly speak. "Answer it! Answer it! That is our case worker!!" I KNEW at that moment that we were getting our referral!! Matt starts talking to her and because it was so noisy we said we would go find a quieter place to talk. Since we were at the front of the line about to go in we decided to go in anyway which was pure torture! It was the longest 15 minutes of my life! And it was a horrible attraction! After we finished we sprinted to the quietest place we could find and called her back. The five of us gathered around the phone to listen to her share about a little girl who had just come into Hannah's Hope. It was quite an experience trying to process everything she was saying and telling us. We knew at once that we wanted to move forward and learn more about her so after our phone call which lasted about 45 minutes we were able to look through some files and and see some pictures of this precious child. This was a little difficult as we were trying to download all of this from Matt's phone. Thank heavens for smart phones! I don't know what we would have done had we not been able to get to a computer and see her sweet face. Our caseworker then went through the next steps with us which gave me a slight cause for panic as we weren't going to be home for almost a week. And of course, my phone is the one that had the important numbers such as the international pediatrician, our social worker, etc on it. I mean really! The ONE day I don't have my phone on me! We agreed to do the best we could given our circumstances. After spending some time rejoicing and praying together we set off to bask in the excitement of the day. The other special part to the day is that it was Matt's mom's birthday and we were able to share our amazing news with his parents as they were there with us.

Now here is the best part! Well, two things really. The first is that I had JUST finished the night before a book titled, Kisses From Katie by Katie Davis which is a story about a young woman who moved to Uganda and began a school for children and adopted 14 little girls. It was truly an amazing story and my heart was on fire for the orphans in our world. The second thing is that the very MOMENT before we recieved the call I was staring at the space between where Matt and Brooke were standing in line (there was about a body space between them) and I thought to myself that I can't wait to have that space filled with another member of our family someday. I prayed that it would happen soon and that is when the phone rang!! GOD IS SO GOOD!

Disney World really is the place where dreams come true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!