Monday, July 4, 2011

Love At First Sight

The last few weeks have been quite busy in the Sutliff household. A week after school was out for Julie and the kids, we left for vacation. Since Jaden's dance recital was on the day we had planned on leaving, we left later than usual and ended up driving all night. Since the kids were able to sleep most of the way, they didn't think the 13 hour drive was that bad! Needless to say, we had a great time at Woodloch and then headed to Connecticutt to visit Julie's best friend Katie. Since I was leaving on June 22nd for a mission trip to Honduras, I flew home on Monday, June 20th. Julie and the kids ended up staying for another week and came home on the 29th. I returned home from Honduras on July 1st.

We had a feeling that we may hear something about a referral while I was in Honduras and unreachable...but, we also knew our case manager was going on vacation from July 1st through the 15th and felt our wait may just continue on. However, Julie received a call from Bethany's home office at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, July 1st. While I was traveling home...Julie was hearing the details of our son for the first time. Yes, we received our referral!!! The excitement of knowing specific details of our son and that we are now another step closer to meeting him is making this process all too real.

Our son, was born on March 28th...which makes him 3 months old! He is healthy and weighs about 10 lbs. He has big beautiful eyes and a lot of hair. We immediately fell in love and now have a face to go along with our prayers. Even though it's progress, we are now in the next phase of waiting. We have some paperwork to fill out and then we will wait to hear the date for our first court hearing. This trip will enable us to meet him for the first time. Although we have some time before we will bring him home, we are excited to finally be matched with a child.

We will keep you posted as we learn more. In the meantime, please continue to pray that the process goes smoothly and God protects our little boy.