The anticipation can be
excruciating. You hurry, hurry, hurry to get all your paperwork
completed for your very important dossier and then you wait?wait
and wait some more.
When adopting internationally,
getting ?the call? makes for a very memorable day. First you
cry, then you ask for specifics about your child, then you call
your spouse and/or family members and then you wait again. The
referral package will come to you with wonderful pictures and
medical information on your child. Whew!! Now that is over; when
do I get to travel??
I can remember this day like it was
yesterday. I received two ?calls?: one when we adopted our first
daughter from China in 1996 and then again when I adopted her
sister in 1998. But this story is not about my ?call?. On
November 5, 2007, some very dear friends of mine got ?the call?.
Since they live in St. Louis, the whole family came into
Children?s Hope headquarters to get their referral.
They did have to wait though. The
medical had to be translated and other paperwork made ready
before they could actually come in to see their beautiful
daughter. It was only a couple of hours, but I am sure it seemed
like a century.
How did this all start, you ask?
Dear friends Karen and Curt Miller, along with their daughter
Lauren, had just returned from China with their little girl and
sister, Katie in May 2005. This family goes to my church and
their daughter is in my daughter?s class. When they began their
adoption process, the wait time from paperwork submission to
referral was 6-9 months. Tom and Jeannette Eskridge were so
smitten by Katie that they started the process, too. Tom and
Jeanette have two sons, Kevin and Connor, and they wanted a
little girl to complete their family.
For those who know, it?s not
necessary to say - the wait time kept getting longer, longer and
longer. I would see them at church and they would ask if I had
heard anything. Even though I work at Children?s Hope
International, I couldn?t tell them when they would get their
referral - I did not know! Like Karen and Curt before me, I
would have to say, ?Just wait. God will bring your daughter when
it is meant to be.?
I could always see the sad and
frustrating looks on their faces when I told them this. When Tom
and Jeanette started the process, the wait time was 7-9 months.
Their paperwork was received and entered in China?s system on
December 5, 2005. December 2006 came and went and they still had
no referral. I think the wait for their baby sister was just as
difficult for the boys. They were 9 and 12 years old when they
began thinking about having a baby sister in the house, so they
were old enough to have the same anticipation as their parents.
It
got to the point when the wait was almost unbearable since
everyone always asks, ?When will you bring your daughter home??
This question is always said with good intentions, but when you
have lots of friends and family asking, it can seem like you get
asked every 10 minutes. Tom and Jeanette decided to try and
relax and not talk about it very much. This is the typical
course of action if you want to keep your sanity while waiting.
The first Sunday in November, I
attended a baby shower for the family along with lots of friends
from church, the kids? school, and her friends and family. Yeah,
you can guess what everyone was asking: ?When will you get ?the
call???
As it turns out - the very next day.
On November 5, 2007, exactly 23 months from their paperwork
submission to China, the Eskridges received their referral of
their daughter Kayla.
I was so thrilled; I couldn?t wait
for them to come in to see her picture. They pulled the boys out
of school and came into the office to ?get their referral?! As
you can see in the pictures, it was exciting for everyone.
Tom, Jeanette, Kevin and Connor
traveled to China over the Christmas holidays and came home with
Kayla on December 29, 2007. Most people wouldn?t want to be away
from their families at Christmas, but what better Christmas
present could you have than to be finally holding your precious
daughter that you waited so long for?
Congratulations to my dear
friends!
-- Pam Bischoff works for Children?s
Hope International in the St. Louis Office.
2008 Children's Hope International.
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