I was at work and had just finished a meeting. At the end of the meeting, we were talking
about our adoption, when would we hear something, any news to share, etc. I love when people remember and ask but after
two years of waiting, sometimes the questions are just depressing when you have
no news to share.
I came back downstairs to my office and was doing some work
at my desk when my cell phone rang. At
first, I thought it was the Target pharmacy calling with a reminder to pick-up
a prescription. The number of Target and
the number for our agency are very similar.
But then I noticed that it did indeed say “MI, USA” under the number –
as in Michigan, the home state of our adoption agency. Of course my heart skipped a beat but I
thought they were probably calling about some paperwork we were working to
update. I didn’t get too excited because
I knew we were still a little ways down on the ‘unofficial’ waiting list.
But after exchanging a few pleasantries, she said, “I have a
possible referral for you.” My. Heart.
Stopped. I got all flustered and
tongue-tied. Mark and I wanted to be
together when we heard the news for the first time so I fumbled around and
finally told her that I would call her back when I was with Mark.
So I started trying to call Mark. I knew that he was going to pick-up Simon
early from school so they could have some father-son time. My hands are shaking and I’m about to cry at
this point. I am calling him from my
work phone and texting him from my cell phone.
Nothing. No answer. Huh.
Ok. I keep trying. I finally just text “REFERRAL!!! Call me!” and decide to start driving
home. I run upstairs (Seriously, I
ran. And I never do that.) to tell my
co-workers that I was leaving and why. A
friend stopped me in the hall to make sure that I was breathing (check!) and
that I could concentrate enough to drive (check!)
Meanwhile, Mark and Simon are across the street from our
home at our neighborhood pool. They are
swimming and having a great time! They
have no clue what is happening. So I’m
driving home, as quickly and safely as I can.
About a half mile from our house, Mark finally calls me. He and Simon had just gotten out of the pool
and when he checked his phone, he thought, ‘what is going on??’ And then he saw the word “referral” and they
dried off and ran home. We literally met
each other in the driveway! Simon was
shouting, “Mommy, we’re gonna find out if it’s a brother or a sister!” So cute!
Knowing how Simon can be when we’re on the phone, we set him
up to watch a cartoon while we called our agency. She told us all about our little boy. Then she sent us his photos and we called
Simon to join us. He is not quite 2
years old and he has the same big brown eyes and long lashes as Simon. He has a pudgy, round face. He is beautiful!!
Then we began calling our families. So fun!!
As with Simon’s referral, they were just as surprised as we were. I love calling and telling them about our new
son. We decided to go out for dinner to
celebrate and we let Simon choose. Of
course, he chose Puccini’s, his favorite pizza place. We were even able to share the photos with a
few friends in person. It was a fun
evening!!
For two years now, Mark and I have been talking about names. We even put a baby name app on our
phones. It’s so fun to banter back and
forth with possible names. As we were
walking out the door to Puccini’s, Mark casually said, “I think I already know
what his name is.” I said, you do? Mark said, “Yes, he just looks like a Hudson.” We talked about different names on the way to
the restaurant but we kept coming back to Hudson, so Hudson it is. J We will keep his Ethiopian name as his middle
name.
A special side note:
for several months now, Simon has wanted a sister named Rapunzel. And if he couldn’t have that, then he wanted
a brother named Flynn Rider. Yes, he
likes the movie ‘Tangled.’ When we told
him that his new brother would be named Hudson, he said things like “what about
Lightening McQueen?” and “how about Tow
Mater?” He later figured out that in the
movie Cars, there is a character with his new brother’s name: Doc Hudson, the
Hudson Hornet. It makes Simon
smile. And I’m afraid little Hudson is
going to have nicknames before we even meet him!
So that’s how our referral day went for Hudson. We are thrilled to add another little boy to
our family and we can’t wait to meet him and then bring him home to his forever
family.
