Remembering our Referral Day

I was reflecting this morning that it's already been 2 months since we received Nathaniel's referral. Wow- does time go by fast or what? 2 months ago today we received the call and I realized I never shared the details on this blog with all of you. Of course, like anything else with us, it didn't come in the traditional way. Nonetheless, it was one of the best days of our lives and we will never forget the joy it has brought us.

Let's start from the beginning. Most of you know we suffered through 33 days (not too bad after the fact!) of waiting for USCIS in Philadelphia to send us our I-797c so that we could get on the referral list. We received this precious piece of paper on 6/13. I immediately called our coordinator and we were put on the list that day. At that time, she told us the wait for a baby boy referral was 2-4 weeks. So, like anything else in this process, we like to be realistic and expect the longest. We were expecting a referral sometime in July. That weekend, we learned that our coordinator had left. So, on Tuesday the 19th @ 5pm ET I called our new coordinator to introduce myself and get an update on the referral time. Before I delve into describing this, I called Rich before I called our new coordinator. Another woman from our agency, Nicole, had been on the list for a few weeks and had gotten her referral that day. I told him- "Nicole got her referral today-- so that means we are getting much closer". There had been an unofficial boy wait list and we were behind Nicole as I remember. Once I saw Nicole received her referral, I knew we had to be close. I told Rich, "I just have a feeling we're going to get our referral today". He said-- and I quote -- "no way!" I just said- I have a feeling it will come today.

Back to my call to our coordinator. She was very new at that time and we introduced ourselves. I wanted to verify she had all of my #'s correct for when that "time" came. She said she did. I asked her what the updated referral time was (hoping to hear 1-3 weeks since a week had gone by) but she told me it was 2-4 weeks. I told her I would be on the road a lot the next day but that she could leave me a message at any time and I would get back to her. That's when the call got strange. She said, "You're going to be on the road" and her voice took a different tone. She said, "Can you hold just a minute" and my heart sank. From that, I had a funny feeling. Yet I was unclear what to think because she had just said 2-4 weeks for a referral. She came back about 2 minutes later- what seemed like an eternity - and said, " Mrs. Hoyt, may I call you, Emily (of course!)? We have your baby boy referral today- congratulations!" Wow- as informed as I thought I was I certainly wasn't expecting this. I said, "you do?" And from there, I guess you could say I was shocked. I never expected it would actually come from a call I made! Typically, the agency calls you when they have your referral. Our coordinator told me she was planning on calling me at 6ET to give us our referral. I was so glad I called because I had a 6:30pm appt that I ended up rescheduling. As soon as I hung up I called Rich and he too was in a state of shock. I ran home and we were staring at pictures of the little guy all evening. Can't believe it's been 2 months.

Hope you enjoyed our story. Everyone has a different story and I love reading and hearing about a moment that changes our lives so dramatically.