Our Referralversary

Today marks one year from when we first learned of Samson. One year ago today, we got "the call" from our social worker that they had the referral for a 2 1/2 year old boy for our family. A few minutes after the call, she emailed the referral information on him and we saw his face for the first time in two different pictures. He had a half forced smile and lots of sadness in his eyes that just broke my heart.

Just one month prior to our referral of Samson, we had the heart breaking experience of a referral falling through so you can imagine that we proceeded with much caution with Samson's referral, trying not to fall in love and then have our hearts broken again.

But there was no way we could keep ourselves from falling in love with this beautiful young toddler. And the instant we pulled up his picture, we all thought that he had many characteristics that matched our family. Even today, home almost 9 months, friends, family and acquaintances will approach us and comment about how much he looks like our family.

God told me in a dream one year before we received Samson's referral that there will be something significant about February in relation to our son. Samson's birthday is February 11th.

God woke me up from this same dream, I looked at the time and it was 4:55 a.m. and the Holy Spirit told me to remember this time as a confirmation of who our son will be. Just a few weeks ago, I was viewing Samson's referral file we saved on our lap top. The time it was saved was 4:55 p.m.

The next day after that call, Tuesday, May 5th, we claimed him as our son. We knew he was our son and there wasn't anything holding us back from proceeding with our adoption of him.

The following Sunday was Mother's Day. I had much to celebrate as a mother of now 4 children, including being a new mom of now my first son - the best Mother's Day gift ever!

May 5th, the day we officially (on paper) accepted the referral of our beautiful new son was also a day God spoke to us as a day that would mean something special related to our son. I wrote about this mystical experience here.

We waited almost one full year after we submitted our dossier to learn about Samson. I remember wondering if this would ever happen. The day we received the call was so surreal. He had lost his birth family just two weeks prior. There was so much to take in, so many emotions and so much to think about. It's so different than giving birth. Trying to be cautious on top of our excitement, felt like a prolonged labor with the emotional pain instead of the physical pain. Does that make sense? We were happy, scared, tentative, yet we knew this was our son.

We hope to celebrate this evening when everyone is home but for now, looks like a beautiful day for Samson and me to spend outside together.