OUR APPROVAL STORY----

I just read Michelle & Jeff's blog and decided I should probably post our approval story so at least I have it recorded somewhere. Not that we will ever forget but we are trying to post as much as possible for Derek's sake. So here it is:

Knowing that we were going to be 2 weeks post orphanage investigation on Wednesday July 23rd we anticipated our approval to come sometime that week. On Tuesday afternoon as I kept watching my email and all of the blogs that I enjoy each day I made a last ditch effort to find out approval information. I logged onto the Yahoo Travel Group and posted a question asking if anyone out there had ever gotten a mid week approval since all we were seeing was Friday and Monday's. Much to my surprise I received this comment back:

YES,
Ours was on Wed. exactly 2 weeks after they had been to our son's orphanage!
IT IS GOING TO BE TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Teresa
AP-Guatemala
PAP-Vietnam I600 approval since 7/2

THANKS TERESA B. You know your stuff!!!!!

You can only imagine the excitement I felt from reading this. I forwarded it to Michelle & Lauren and read it to Norm immediately. I knew that Tuesday night or wee hours Wednesday morning was going to be it.

I watched our email and refreshed it countless times before finally heading off to bed around 11:00 with our laptop under our arm and my cell phone in my hand. We set the laptop up on the dresser and checked it a few more times before giving in to the tiredness from the day. I laid the cell phone next to me at the bed and drifted off to sleep. Michelle, Lauren & I had a pact that whoever got the approval first would call all the rest of us. After praying long and hard I fell asleep restlessly but none the less I slept.
At 3:31 AM my cell phone started playing "Klumsy" and we knew that someone got the much awaited approval news. Anticipating we would all 3 get approved at the same time we were prepared for a huge celebration. I answered the phone excitedly and all I heard at the other end was Michelle screaming something to me about the approval and giggling as hard as she could. Norm flew out of bed to check our email which seemed like it took forever to get the computer awake for. HMMMM.....No approval at our end. I could hear the sinking in Michelle's giggle when I told her we didn't get ours. I proceeded to comfort Norm and told Michelle I would call her if we got ours. Now that we were awake there was no falling asleep anytime quickly anyways. I laid back down in the bed and told Norm it would be here soon that we still had an hour or more to check for it. Michelle was off to call Lauren.
15 minutes went by and I decided to check for the email again. Well guess what.....IT WAS THERE!!!!! Norm sprang out of bed to read the good news with me! His response was "I'm A Daddy"!! Tears of joy filled our eyes as we hugged and rejoiced. We were finally approved to travel for Derek. I called Michelle to tell her and once again the giggling and screaming started!!! She wasn't able to reach Lauren though. I decided I would try as well but she hadn't answered my call either. Strange!!! I left a message to call me though. I debated with myself about calling my mom at that hour of the morning but this was news that needed shared so Norm took to calling his parents and I called my mom. Much excitement was shared!!! We laid back down in bed still exhausted but full of questions and sleep took over and we drifted off again. At a little after 6 my cell began playing that tune again.....it's Lauren!!!! She was so excited and sounded so shocked. She had actually SLEPT through our calls (BAD LAUREN). She broke the chain (we'll get her for that later). None the less we all 3 got them and we will all travel together and adopt these beautiful toddlers together after 2 1/2 years of the struggle to get to this point.

What a glorious morning that was. I have concluded that even though each portion of this wait has been hard this one IS the hardest. Knowing we have the approval to travel and bring Derek home but waiting for the government in Vietnam to issue us a date to be there is tough. We are packed and ready to make our travel arrangements when the call comes through!!!!!

Continue to pray for our wait and for our travel!!!!