Finding out about Sylvia + the Latest.

On March 10th at 3:20 in the afternoon, I received a phone call that I could see was from Stockholm. Usually any phone calls from Stockholm are telemarketers, so I answered in my typical fashion when I think someone is going to try to sell me something, with irritation in my voice, trying to hint that the person on the other end was wasting my valuable time.

But then I hear a nice lady's voice say, "Hi! I'm calling from your adoption agency. Am I calling at a bad time?" Whoops! I recovered quickly and told her I could talk!

Now this phone call was totally out of the blue, because even though we had taken the first steps toward a second adoption (we had recently completed the home study and we were waiting for approval from social services), we didn't have any of our paperwork in South Africa. Plus, we knew we would probably end up waiting at least 2 more years because of the waiting time in Sweden to send off our paperwork and then in South Africa to get matched with a child.

So it certainly caught me off guard when she said, "There is a baby girl at Door of Hope that you have the possibility of adopting if you want to." The world kind of stood still for a moment, while at the same time it was like I could think really clearly, too. It was bizarre. Anyway, I said, "Um, okay, how is that?"

I won't go into all the details now, but basically it turned out that Sylvia was at the same orphanage Esther stayed at her first 6 months, and that her birthmother was from Zimbabwe. When that is the case, some countries like Holland that usually have many families that adopt from SA can no longer do so since the child's mother is from a different country. That, combined with a few other factors, like our adoption agency's representative visiting that orphanage just then, got them to thinking about our family and whether or not we could adopt Sylvia.

So, of course I said I would have to discuss it with Niklas, who was at work at the time, and told her I would have an answer for her the following day.

I hung up in a surrealistic bubble, much like when I got the phone call about Esther, where things move in slow motion while at the same time you can somehow think very clearly, and realized that we had just received another phone call that had the potential to change our family forever.

I decided to wait to tell Niklas until after we had put Esther to bed, and so we had one of those discussions where you realize you are talking about something that is huge, and that could change the direction of your life in a way you had never expected. I think I was slightly shaking the whole time.

Niklas felt right away that this was something God wanted for our family and that of course we would say yes. And we began reflecting over all the changes: "a little sister for Esther, only 18 months apart! Where will we get the money for this?!?!? If we spend money on this, then there is no money to spend on renovating the house to accommodate another child!!! They're going to have so much fun together! Suddenly we're going to be a family of four! Two queens! What is that going to be like! Another trip to a beautiful country! Can we really do this? We are really going to do this! This is going to be SO AWESOME! This is going to be SO HARD! This is going to be just right! God is so awesome!" were basically some of our thoughts that first evening.

It was so much different from finding out about Esther, because we had been longing and longing and longing to get that phone call, and once we got it we could announce it to the world! But this time the phone call came out of the blue, and we couldn't tell anyone until it was definite that she was going to be our daughter! So that was really hard, holding it all in.

The timing for me to tell my family was great. I happened to be in the US with Esther visiting my parents and brother and his family. And the day I finally got the two photos, which I had been really hoping to have when I told them, my brother was over for lunch so I could tell all 3 of them at the same time.

My mom and I hugged each other and cried. I think I was just so relieved to finally tell somebody, plus I had finally received photos and I was emotional. Esther couldn't quite figure out why we were so "sad"!

Then Niklas ended up telling his family on the phone and e-mailing photos.

After calling the adoption agency back, it was time to start the paperchase. I was under the impression that the more quickly I got our paperwork together, the more quickly we could go get Sylvia, so I did everything I knew to do to speed up the process. That's not always easy when you are dealing with people and bureaucracies, but I maintained my sanity for the most part. Some days I wasn't so sure, but after some major bumps at the beginning things went well.

We saved money by using a really great translator who agreed to authorize our English translation for free!!!!!!!!!! That was huge.
And we didn't have to get an updated physical, but could use the one from before, which I also had managed to get way cheaper than the first time.

Finally our paperwork arrived in Pretoria on April 12th, and we thought for sure we would get to travel relatively quickly.

But it turns out some new adoption laws went into effect in SA on April 1st, just two weeks before, which meant that some changes had to made in Sylvia's casework. So then we worried like crazy that we wouldn't be able to go get her until after the World Cup (which is being held in South Africa!) at the END of July. And that just didn't seem acceptable to us.

So I prayed and prayed and prayed, despite the seemingly hopeless circumstances, and at one point I really felt that I had prayed it through. And despite news to the contrary several times, I kept sensing that I really had prayed this through, and that we would get to travel May 27th. I kind of just wondered how God would be able to intervene in seemingly impossible circumstances to answer my prayer.

But He did it!
Yesterday at 5 pm we got an e-mail with the good news that we would, after all, get to travel May 27th and become a Forever Family on May 31st, just 2 days after Sylvia turns one year old. Esther LOVES the idea of birthdays right now, so she is going to be excited about that! Jealous, perhaps, but she'll have to get used to the idea of a little sister!

She knows she has a little sister in South Africa, that we are going to ride an airplane to Africa, and that her sister's name is Sylvia (though she calls her Cynthia for some reason). We're not sure what else we can tell her at her level of understanding yet, but I am trusting God that Esther and Sylvia are going to form a really special sister bond right from the start and that they will be precious to one another.

I just now booked exorbitantly expensive plane tickets (LORD help us with our finances!) and am trying to see if we can stay with a family for at least one week of the three to help us keep costs down.

There is a stadium next to the guest house we will be staying at, and it turns out that the South African soccer team will be playing a World Cup match in that stadium while we're there!!!!!! It is going to be CRAZY but exciting. I guess that evening none of us will be sleeping!

It's interesting because I was in Germany in 1996 when Germany won the European Championship, and then I was in Venice when Italy won the 2006 World Cup, and now I will be in Pretoria when South Africa plays in the World Cup! That must certainly mean victory for Bafana Bafana!!!!!!!!!!!!!