I really didn’t meant to go so long between posts but the past two weeks have been incredibly busy.  Noah and I and sometimes Michael Luke have been traveling off and on but we are finally back home and there is nothing like waking up in your own bed.

Today’s post is Part 2 of From Hong Kong City to Hong Kong where I am sharing our story of how we matched with Esther, the little girl we are adopting from Hong Kong.  Today we are continuing with…

The Days Before Esther

Thursday, July 4

At the end of our last post I left you waiting.  Waiting for the rest of the story… the happy ending.  Thursday, July 4 was our second day of the seven day waiting period.  Michael Luke and I both slept in. Like most smart phone addicts we checked our e-mail as soon as we woke up and found three e-mails from Angie, our social worker with Lifeline Children’s Services.  The e-mails contained pictures and video that were taken the day before of the little girl we hoped to match with.  We were ecstatic!  For the first time we got a glimpse of her personality and absolute cuteness.  We watched the video over and over.  Each one was only a couple of minutes long but each revealed so much about her.  She had a sense of humor, could jump and feed herself, and at almost twenty-eight months could sing her ABC’s.

As precious as these videos were it made us fall in love with her even more. And while that is a good thing it made waiting to find out if we matched with her even harder.  Harder because we couldn’t help but picture her in our family.  To dream that we would be able to bring her home someday.  There was nothing we could do about the waiting though so instead we turned to God in more prayer.  Trusting and knowing that he was in complete control.  Isn’t it nice to rest in that?

Monday, July 8

Monday I just couldn’t take it anymore!  I was trying my best to wait but had several questions that I felt like Angie could answer.  So I gave her a call.  I found out there was no way of knowing if any other families had already submitted a request to match.  Looking back I think it was best that I didn’t know.  Angie was also able to give me a little more insight as to when we could expect a decision from Mother’s Choice.  Up until this point ML and I knew there was a seven day waiting period but didn’t know how long Mother’s Choice would need to look through all the families and choose the best one for this particular child.  We found out a decision would be on the tenth… the immediate end of the seven day waiting period.  This was exciting news because whether we were chosen or not it was nice to know that we would not be waiting for several weeks.  Seven days was already long enough.

This meant we could hear something from Mother’s Choice in Hong Kong as soon as 8:00 P.M. Tuesday, July 9 because Hong Kong is twelve hours ahead of us!

Tuesday, July 9

Tuesday came and passed slowly.  It was like waiting on labor to start.  We knew it was coming.  We just didn’t know when.  Noah and I tried to keep ourselves busy during the day but by the time supper got here the minutes were creeping by.  ML and I put Noah to bed early so we would be free to talk if Angie called.  Lifeline is incredible to work with.  Angie our social worker had told us that she would let us know as soon as she heard something from Hong Kong… no matter what time of day/night it was.

The minutes kept ticking by. ML left the house around nine to go pick some friends up at the airport and take them to their house.  He was instructed to call me immediately if he heard anything from Angie.  A call never came.  We stayed up late.  Later than usual.  I went ahead and made a batch of my laundry detergent to pas the time.  Finally, around eleven thirty we decided to call it a night.  Since Angie lives on the east coast we figured she had probably already gone to bed since it was after midnight where she lived.

Sleep didn’t come easy to me that night.  I continued to try to rest in God’s sovereignty but really struggled.  Sometimes it’s really hard to do that when your emotions feel like they need to tell God what YOU think would be best.  Yeah right, like I actually know better than God what would be best for the situation.  This entire waiting period was definitely a wonderful time of spiritual growth for me and I have no doubt that is exactly how God intended it to be.

Wednesday, July 10

Wednesday morning came.  We figured if we were going to hear anything from Angie it would probably be before Michael Luke left for work.  We knew Angie would already be up by then and would probably check her e-mail as soon as she woke up.  We never heard anything though so ML left for work and we expected to start the whole waiting process over that night.  Thinking maybe it was taking longer than expected to decide.  Maybe for some reason they weren’t in the office yesterday.  Who knows?  I was sort of dreading the whole waiting process all over again but had begun to accept it…. until.

Until, I was getting ready to jump in the shower that morning. The phone rang.  It was Angie and I was incredibly nervous to answer it.  Regardless of the answer this was going to be a life changing call.

I answered.  Angie sounded a little groggy and hesitant… almost cautious of what she was about to say.  Immediately, I began to get nervous and to expect to be gently let down.  To be told that another family had been chosen.  That was not the case.  Thankfully, Angie isn’t one to leave you hanging.  She immediately let me know the good news and apologized for taking so long to call.  She had just woken up and checked her e-mail because she had stayed up so late waiting on the e-mail to come through from Mother’s Choice.  Unfortunately, she had fallen asleep before ever receiving the e-mail.  It was ok.  I was just beyond excited that we had officially been matched with Esther!

I immediately called MIchael Luke at work to share the wonderful news with him.  We were both so excited and could hardly believe we had matched with our little girl, Esther.  He gave me the go ahead to call our families and to send them the e-mail we had typed up (just in case) the previous night with all of Esther’s pictures and videos.  It was a crazy morning.

Noah and I went to the hospital to meet ML for lunch that day to celebrate and because we needed to get some paperwork notarized immediately.  I think Michael Luke was as proud that day as the day Noah was born.  He was showing everyone he saw Esther’s picture and telling them about our new little girl.  It was sweet.

That night we were still on cloud nine and decided to celebrate by going out to eat at Hong Kong City.

A local Hong Kong restaurant here in town.  It was nothing fancy but we thought it fit the occasion and made us feel a little closer to our daughter.  It was a wonderful way to bring our waiting process to a close and start a new one.

Waiting until we travel to Hong Kong to bring her home!

Isn’t God great?

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