Three years ago ... The referral story

Many of you are all too aware of Lucy's referral story but for you newbies I must must retell. Three years ago at around 11 am I found myself sitting in the Children's Home foyer with my Ethiopia specialist watching her go through my dossier documents. She made sure all my things were in order and then clarified that I was indeed willing to accept a referral during court closure. I said YES I will. As I got up to walk away she said something like "I am not sure if there is anything upstairs or not". I didn't think much of it. I drove back to Minneapolis and gathered my co-workers Mel and Risa (Mel, who would travel with me and who would later travel to get her own son) to go out for a celebratory lunch. Around 11:45 while waiting for our food, my phone rang. I saw the "651" area code and became irritated. You see, while I was officially "waiting" for a referral I hadn't yet become excited about that possibility ... I was thinking, "shoot, must be something missing from the dossier".

I answered the phone. It was my social worker from CHSFS. She said "Is this a good time?". I was like sure. She said "I have a referral for a little girl". My heart stopped. She said "blah de blah de blah de blah" I was like "huh?". Social worker "blah ... 2 months old ... de blah ... foot deformity de blah de bla ... do you want to look at the referral?" Me: "yes".

I couldn't eat. I raced back to the office. Our internet was having problems. What the he**? We got it working, sort of. Refreshed refreshed refreshed ... no email. Call back "where's my baby?" Finally it comes. Slowly, slowly the file starts to open ... painfully slow.... the photo is ginormous ... I see some hair, a forehead an eye ... the phone rings. It's a teacher from my agency, she's at my client's house, the kids have been left alone, I must come out there. Sh** ... I tear myself away from the computer, leaving Mel in charge of getting it open and printing the photo. I go to my clients ... wait for the police to come, perform bad social work (I was a little distracted). Race back to the office. Mel has printed the photo larger then life because we couldn't figure out the file. So we tape her together, she takes about 8 pieces of paper ... and when we are finished I am running around with the huge poster of a babies upper torso. Hysterical.

I couldn't believe I got a referral in 45 minutes. I couldn't believe it was a girl. When I applied you could choose gender. I remained open to gender. First I thought the surprise would be nice and 2nd I wanted a kid ... and didn't need a girl vs boy. Generally speaking being open to gender means you get a boy. Lucy's early wardrobe might indicate that I assumed she'd be a boy.

I was floating for weeks. So excited, so in love ... so ready to go get her. I memorized ever stinking detail of those photos.