One Less

Tuesday, September 2, 2014.  It was a regular day.  Back to the grind after a glorious long weekend with the family.  We were running behind.  We were all tired and dragging.  Auntie Fred stopped by to surprise us and the kids welcomed the interruption from school.  Right as Auntie Fred was about to leave, my phone rang.  Our social worker's name popped up.  Any expectant adoptive parent knows that when the social worker calls, you answer!  I answered and heard our social worker say, "Hi Katrina!  Do you have a minute?"  I knew then that this was "the" call.  "The" call we'd imagined and played over in our minds many times.  Somehow I stammered, "Actually, I have company right now, but she's heading out.  Let me call you right back after I get the kids down for a nap."  I think I about shoved Auntie Fred out the door and rapidly ushered the kids off to rest time.  I called back, all the while convincing myself this surely wasn't "the" call.  I'd written an e-mail with some questions, so surely she was just calling to answer those for me. I quickly learned it was, indeed, "the" call.

We were informed there was a file from the shared list and would require us to act quickly.  That said, we knew we would need to move very fast to make a decision and Chris quickly agreed it would be okay for me to open the file before he got home from work.  One click and I began a text message barrage.  "Oh my..."  "Wow."  "This could be her!"  "I think we need to contact the IAC to have this file reviewed."  I quickly began taking photos of photos and videos of videos on my phone so I could text them to him.  They weren't great quality, but they gave him a quick glance.  We decided very quickly Tuesday afternoon to proceed with having a doctor take a look.

Wednesday night, very late, we heard back from the doctor.  She gave us great insight and information and confirmed our heart's leading...this would be our daughter.

Late Wednesday night I e-mailed our social worker and confirmed to her that we were saying a resounding YES!  This is Little One!  She is the next Burris!  We submitted the documents we needed via e-mail and she confirmed very early on Thursday morning that it had been submitted to China.  Now, she said, we would wait for PA (pre-approval).  We were not allowed to "share" her until we got that.  PA typically takes 1-2 weeks.  Talk about torture! 

Miracle of all miracles, somehow, we submitted our Letter Of Intent on Thursday morning and received confirmation of our PA late Friday evening!  I do not know how that is possible, but it happened and we are so thankful for God's graciousness to us.

We are happy to say that tonight, there is a little girl across the ocean, who has no clue what is about to happen to her or that she is about to become a Burris.  She is one less orphan.  She is our daughter.