5 Years, 7 months, and 21 Days

That's how long we "officially" waited for a referral for our 6th and final child!  Yes, you got it, we know who Reese is!  We received the call last night at 9:24 that GW had locked-in a file for a precious (and I do mean PRECIOUS) little girl.  We cannot share a picture yet or give all of her information, but she does share a part of her name with Reagan's Chinese name, she is in the same province as Ethan, and her birthday is in the Spring (she was born in 2011).  She was not healthy when she was abandoned, but is cured  from the bacterial infection that she had and seems to be healthy and developmentally on track!  She is so adorable!  She reminds me of our friend Lindsey Bauer but she has our friend Klaire Wilson's cheeks!  We are in love with her!  It's crazy to say that our family will be complete when we get home with her!  This is our last time waiting for a referral, what a FABULOUS feeling!  I think I can make it thru one more round of paperwork, knowing it is the last time to update a homestudy, the last time to pay for stupid fingerprints, the last time to spend a fortune on medical visits for all of us, the last moment of the unknown!  She and Ethan are very close in age so it will be kinda like twins!  I am so excited when I think about all the fun we are going to have with them! 

Our prayer is that we will be able to adopt them both in one trip.  Obviously, this is a financial help, but it will also be logistically difficult if we have to make two trips.  We do not want Ethan to wait any longer than he has already, so when he is cleared for adoption, we will go ASAP.  We are going to attempt to get Reese's paperwork done in record time and try to bring her home, too.  However, if we can't, it will mean Tim will probably have to travel alone to bring Reese home because we won't want to leave Ethan with anybody else when he will just be getting settled into life as a Tucker.  These are all things that we will be praying long and hard about in the next few weeks and we would appreciate your prayer support as well.

A little bit about last night...........  We knew it was a possibility to get a referral because GW had told us they would be looking for Reese during File Release Night.  We tried hard not to get our hopes up and I actually did a pretty good job putting out of my mind for most of the day.  Then after dinner I started really getting anxious!  Tim and I tried to guess what time the call would come, if it did.  He thought 8:00, I thought 10:00, so I kinda split the difference and thought maybe 9:00.  We got the girls to bed (or so we thought) and settled down to watch tv.  I was thinking we should do something to distract ourselves and just when I was about to suggest something, the phone rang.  It was 9:24.  We argued for a second who was going to answer it, I was so nervous I didn't want to, but he handed me the phone so I answered it.  Kim was on the other line and she immediately informed us that a file had been locked-in for us!  She told us all about her and we asked some questions and she said she would email her file, which included pictures!  During our conversation, Nosey Ryleigh appeared at our bedroom door.  We gave her the "get out of here right now wave and point".  When we got off the phone, she came back to the doorway and said all the girls want to know who called.  In typical Ryleigh fashion, she asked a string of 20 questions including "was it Great Wall, was it about Ethan, are you going to China"....  We were smiling from ear to ear and told her to go away while we looked at the pictures and read all the information.  The next thing we know she is bounding back up the stairs saying "I figured it out, it's File Release Night, and we got Reese's referral".  That little stinker doesn't miss a thing.  We hadn't even talked about it being File Release Night.  So we broke down and told her to get the other girls (who were waiting in the kitchen trying to hear what was going on!).  We pulled up the cutest picture and gathered them together and turned the computer around so they could see.  There was a lot of oohing and aahing and happiness all around!  We are so blessed!  It was a priceless family moment.