Oh What a Night!

Yesterday was indescribable, but we'll do our best to try...

Jerry had originally wanted to go shopping in the afternoon for all the stuff we'll need for our trip, but I hadn't had time to get the entire list together, so we decided to go ahead and move the furniture around in our room and put the crib up. We decided we'd start at 2pm. When I went up, Jerry was on the phone in the office, so I started clearing out the room and moving little things and cleaning and stuff in our room. After a while, he yelled over, "We got it." I yelled back, "Got what?" I had NO idea what he was talking about. It took him a while...maybe even several minutes...before he finally told me that what "we got" was Hanna's birth certificate!!!! I wasn't even expecting it because we were only 2.5 weeks into a quoted 3-4 week wait.

Well, I rushed over to see her new picture (leaving our room torn apart and the bathroom and hallway full of stuff from our room). My how she's changed!!! And there it was...the official paper stating that Gerald Shannon and Christy Shannon were parents of Hanna Gerald Shannon. (Yep, after much question and discrepancies on her paper work, her name is spelled with 2 n's instead of 1 n.) Wow. I can't begin to express what went on in my heart. (and yes, we'll change her name back when we finalize her adoption in the US) The only other information we got was that we would get a travel date next week.

Jerry immediately emailed our specialist to tell her we were pretty flexible in our ability to travel (and to let her know the week we were scheduled to be at the beach in Sept.). She emailed back and said we were tentatively in the Sept 4 travel group, and could we make that work. Jerry had joked about being in that group, because it means we land back in the US Friday morning and would leave Sat. morning for our yearly family vacation to the beach. (I told him he obviously wasn't the one packing!) So, when he got the reply, he yelled down the steps, "Can we make it work?!?" The answer was an immediate, " YEP!!!" Funny how perspective changes the way you look at things. The only other option would be to wait until October. Suddenly, it seems like a PERFECT time to travel! :)

Our specialist Jan emailed back that we could go ahead and put tickets on hold for the Sept 4 group, but that she would let us know at the end of next week or the beginning of the following week if there was any space in an earlier travel group.

Then it was off to contact Grandma and a travel agent. And the whole day was turned on it's ear. Jerry eventually ran off to a meeting, and I got ready to host a bonfire for folks from the church (a monthly summer occurrence). The crib would have to wait.

It was so fun to have friends to share the news with and to show off Hanna's new picture to. Then, later in the evening, someone came into the kitchen and said they needed everyone out around the fire. As we were coming out, I saw lots of people walking out towards their car, and wondered "hmmmm?", but had no clue what was up. When people started walking back with gift bags with teddy bears and booties and such on them, I started to get fishy. Then Darice walked up carrying a big, beautiful cake with Hanna's picture on it that said "Thank you God for Hanna Tessema Shannon"! Rip then gave the explanation...they had been trying to figure out how and when to have a baby shower for us, and finally decided to hijack the bonfire (since they knew we'd be home) and have the shower there. We were totally surprised.

Could the timing have been any more perfect?!? What a way to celebrate the last step of paperwork in this long journey!!! (They claim they have a connection in the Ethiopian government and arranged for us to receive the BC today, but we doubt that they are THAT good!) What a way to celebrate the end that is now in sight...with diapers (YEHAW!!! I never thought I'd be excited over more diapers!) and wipes and little pink socks and awesome baby board books and sweet little girly tops and soft little cuddly bears and and stars to hang in her room and even a dear little pink flowered outfit that had caught both Jerry & my eyes the one and only time we went looking at baby things. The generosity was a bit overwhelming...even as I had fretted a bit today thinking about finishing up the shopping list for the trip and needing to shop. Not only did we get some of the stuff on that list, but we were so blessed with gift cards and gifts that will more than cover getting what we need to bring our little Hanna home. God is so good and generous...and His people are so amazing to be willing to be a part of it all. I am blessed and overwhelmed.

The other really fun thing was to watch how excited our kids were. They were so full of joy to help open diapers! They are SO excited!!! It still amazes me how deep their love is for her.

The night ended with a beautiful fireworks display just down the street! Go figure...fireworks in Creswell!!! (Someone said they thought they were for the wedding taking place down the street, but I think they were for Hanna ;)! ) What a perfect expression of what I'm feeling in my heart!