After a 7.5 month wait...ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!

My son had 2 friends spend the night (6/10) after a long week of vacation Bible School. The boys stayed up until almost 2 in the morning and I stayed up with them so the house wouldn't burn down. So the next morning we were all tired and slept in. At 9:05am my phone rang and I did not recognize the number so I ignored it because I was so tired. Well then I had a voice mail and I couldn't go back to sleep until I listened to it. So I groggily put it to my ear, and it was our adoption social worker! Oh my gosh! I was awake! But I still was not quite sure why she was calling because she told us if she were calling with a referral she would call early in the morning before Clay left for work. So I got extremely nervous and didn't want to call her back without Clay being with me! So I call Clay at work and tell him and while I was talking she called him! So I got off the phone so he could answer and began brushing my teeth and crying. Well just a few seconds later he called back and had her on 3-way!! So I knew then that it was exciting news!! She said "Hi Amanda, how are you?" and I said "Nervous!". She said, "Did Clay tell you why I am calling?" and I said "No!" And she said "Well, I am calling with your first referral!" Oh my gosh! My heart was in my throat! Then she told us it was a little GIRL! I just let Clay do all the talking because I just cried the whole time! There I was standing in my bathroom in my pajamas hearing that I was having a baby girl! And her name is Ba Ro, a name given to her by her birth mother (which is so special) and it means "purple" because that is her favorite color. I just think that is so sweet because Clay's grandma's name was Violet. So that is a name option.

Speaking of names...Clay and I have been discussing girl names. We had a boy name picked out. We just knew we would get a referral for a boy, everyone gets boys from Korea! I secretly wanted a girl so badly and I cannot describe in words how thrilled I am to have this precious angel in my life! Although I do love purple, I feel I need to give her an American name, because kids in school may not be too nice about "Bo Ra." I love old names, especially from the 1920's, but all the ones we love are already being used by good friends or family members :(.

We officially accepted the referral today, June 14. We left a message Friday evening & had to wait through the longest weekend of our lives before we could talk to someone! I believe we are now going to file acceptance paperwork and it will be sent to Korea later this week and then it will have to be filed there.

Bo Ra was born at 31 weeks, January 21, 2010. At 9 weeks early she only weighed 3.5 lbs. Our medical information on her tells us she is growing well, gaining about 2 lbs per month. She is meeting all of her developmental milestones as well! The last update Dillon had on her was in April, so I am guesstimating she weighs around 12 lbs now. I always thought we would have plenty of time to shop around and find just the perfect items to send whenever we were able to send a care package. Well, when Clay received a call back about accepting our referral he was told someone is traveling to Korea FRIDAY!! And they can take a care package to Bo Ra if we get it to Dillon in time!! So I rushed off to the mall in search for items! I got a few things, but I still need to find a baby photo album tomorrow AND hopefully take pictures of each of us to put in it! Thank goodness for digital cameras! Another thing - this is all still a SECRET! We have told a FEW friends, but no family members! We are trying to make it a special surprise! Clay preaches at church in a couple weeks and we have invited all of our parents and siblings and hope to announce it to them then! It will also be our Father's Day and June birthday celebration party I mentioned in my last post! I really hope it works out! But it also means I have to not tell them for 2 WEEKS! That is going to be really hard!!

In other news, Faith's yellow party was a lot of fun. She got a bike from Clay's parents! And we brought a giant piece of plastic and made a "hillbilly slip'n'slide"! All the kids had a good time, even my 1 year old nephew toddled over and went down fully dressed! haha!