So, here it is...the LONG rundown of the details!
As I'm sure most adoptive families experience, waiting for a referral is agonizing. Knowing that it could come at any minute or it could come months from now is enough to make any sane person, crazy! I had reached my threshold the weekend of December 6-7th...so much so that I had actually called our agency case manager on Monday, the 8th just to make sure that they hadn't shut down their Korea program entirely. Now, I'm a smart person most of the time, but I just really needed that reassurance that we were still moving forward with all of this AND I think I secretly wished that Jan would just tell me that oh yes, by the way...and give us our referral. That didn't happen, but I did feel a sense of peace after talking over my anxieties with our her. I resolved that we just wouldn't get the referral until after Christmas and as much as that would hurt, I was going to be okay with that.
Fast forward to the VERY NEXT DAY! It was snowing, our first real snowfall of the season...Sophie and I stayed home all day in our pjs, making snowflake cookies and enjoying our Christmas tree. I had just finished reading another adoptive families blog...I went back to read the details of their referral call and I wondered out loud when and how that would happen for us. Immediately after that thought, my phone rang. It was approximately 3:15 p.m. It was Jan, our Korea program case manager (the same woman I spoke to the day before) telling me that she had a referral for me and Steve. It took my breath away and I literally had to sit and tell her to give me minute to compose myself. After a few deep breaths and wiping the tears away that were quickly welling up, I said to Jan, "Talk to me." Her next words, "It's a girl!" really put me over the edge and I calmly, but unsuccessfully tried to listen to the rest of what she was telling me! She ran down all of the pertinent medical information and stats, told us that they recommend getting a doctor to review the file before we decide to accept or decline and said it was up to us whether or not we wanted to see pictures now or to wait. Knowing that once we saw a sweet babyface, it would be hard to stay objective, we opted to wait. She quickly e-mailed the referral to us and then, I was off and running.
I called Steve at work and breathlessly got out the news...he must've thought I was losing it! I told him, "It's a girl!" and his response was, "Really?! I told you so!" Apparently he knew all along that we'd get another girl. We shared our excitement with each other, but I wanted to catch our pediatrician before he left for the day, so I quickly got off the phone with my dear hubby. Talked to our amazing pediatrician, who is more like a family friend by now, and he graciously told me to e-mail the info and he'd take a look at it for us. I was supposed to give him until Thursday afternoon.
Right after I got off the phone with our agency! 
Sophie waking up to the news...
Capturing our dazed excitement!
That night, we were cautiously optimistic that everything would check out a-okay with her medically. I had a gut feeling...the same gut feeling I had immediately after receiving Sophie's referral...that this baby girl was ours! We hung the first Christmas ornament and stocking up in anticipation of accepting the referral. (FYI...we had purchased the ornament and stocking the Sunday prior to our referral call...isn't it wild how everything came together?!)
The first Christmas ornament and stand-in stocking...
Sophie did the honors of hanging it on the tree...
So complete...Daddy, Mama, Sophie, Morgan and Buddy (our furbaby)
Waiting to hear back from our doctor was almost unbearable. We chose not to tell anyone until we had officially accepted which was difficult as I am a terrible liar!
Thursday afternoon came and went without any word from our pediatrician, which meant that Friday had me scrambling to get someone, ANYONE to return my calls! Finally, our doctor called me back from his home with his screaming children in the background after 5pm Friday night. Had a great discussion with him...he said that there was no way he would've made us wait throughout the weekend without knowing...sigh...we knew in our minds what we already knew in our hearts. We were getting another daughter! Since he called so late on Friday, our adoption agency had already closed, so we had a wait a couple of days longer to see our daughter's face and to share our news. Ugh.
As soon as the Dillon offices (our adoption agency) opened on Monday (the 15th), I was calling to tell Jan, "WE ACCCEPT! BABY GIRL IS OURS! Now, send me the pictures ASAP!" ;-) Then, after finally seeing her face, we were in love. Such a happy day! I went off to make prints so that we could start telling our family members and close friends that night...we were just busting to tell everyone!
So, there you have it. The story of our baby girl Morgan's referral. Since then, we've been scrambling to tell all of our loved ones, filling out acceptance papers and government forms. We even received her legals which was fantastic, but it meant still more paperwork to complete all before we leave for the holiday. It's been a crazy whirlwind and I will post some of the fun from telling our family to the breakdown of what comes next in a week or so.
I leave you with our sweet Morgan!
Born March 18, 2008
South Korea
