We have a daughter!!!!

Here's the sweet face we fell in love with!

We are just beyond thrilled with the news that we indeed have a daughter! Today was an emotional one. I was unsure of how our phone interview went and I didn't sleep well last night. My stomach was in knots and I even threw up! (lovely, hu?) Thursdays are always super-busy for me anyway, but even more so today with Andrew's last day of preschool (let's just say those teacher gifts didn't get wrapped), Robert's Kindergarten Awards Day and the uniform consignment sale. After all that fun, I headed to the church to pull supplies for Sunday morning children's ministry with Jessica and headed home afterward. I anticipated that we wouldn't hear back from Holt until much later in the afternoon (as they are 2 hours behind us).

I was starting to dwell on the unknowns and it was driving me crazy! I decided to step out on the back porch to get some fresh air and to pray. The weather was beautiful today and I like the quiet of our backyard when the 400 neighborhood kids aren't out there. I realized that I had left my phone inside (for like 1 minute, literally). I came in and heard a beep. It was a missed call on my cell phone. HOLT INTERNATIONAL! Fabulous! THE CALL I've been waiting for all day (well, more like my whole life) and I miss it!?!?!?! How does that happen? I hit send as fast as I possibly could and I got the "Thanks for calling Holt International" from the receptionist. I think I screamed, "um, I have a missed call. I bet it is from _______ (insert name of Waiting Child Manager)!!!!" She barely got out the word "okay" and I said "nevermind, now I'm getting a call on my house phone. Thanks!!!" I'm fairly sure that receptionist gets many a frantic mama on her line each day as Holt also calls parents to tell them their babies are ready to travel. I'm sure she just thought "another crazy mom". Better they know that on the front-end I guess.

The Waiting Child Manager was indeed on that house phone and she said the words we've longed to hear for oh so long! She said we better get busy on that homestudy because we have a daughter waiting for us! I just can't believe it! I was shaking and in total shock. Believe me when I say that God did this mighty thing in spite of the mess we made out of our phone interviews. I was fairly sure we sounded like babbling idiots on the phone!

I frantically called Michael, family members and friends and they all rejoiced with me and the good news. I had to go get Andrew from preschool and was literally shaking. I had to compose myself enough to drive, but once I got to the preschool and saw all those mommies who have prayed for us as we pursued this, I completely lost it! I was a crying mess!!!! Now, remember that today was the last day of preschool for the school year and lots of kiddos are moving on to kindergarten, so one mom patted me on the shoulder and said "oh, honey, it's okay ... our kids are growing up ... you don't have to be sad, he's going to kindergarten and he'll be fine". I just broke out into tears and said "it's not that, we have a daughter" and then suddenly, I'm surrounded by about 30 sobbing moms and I only knew about 1/2 of them. I had teachers and moms in tears. I'd like to publicly apologize to Janie the Director for causing such a sobbing mess at preschool today. People I don't even know were crying tears of joy for us and hugging me. It was amazing to be surrounded with that kind of love! Can I just say that Hope Preschool rocks!?!?!?!

The rest of the afternoon was kind of a blur. Kids and phone calls and bags of stuff from the end of the school year. Andrew had a t-ball game and in true Sloan fashion, we had Pizza Thursday. We prayed together and thanked God for the best gift ... the gift of another precious child. God has been so generous with us! We are so blessed! To top it off, I even got new pictures of our daughter. I just can't stop staring at them. She's beautiful. I'm ready to kiss that face (and fix that hair)! God has truly given us the desires of our hearts! He is so faithful. We are so undeserving, yet He continues to bless us. It's so humbling.

Sweet baby girl, you have a mommy and a daddy and two big brothers who can't wait to bring you home. You are a precious gift from God and we are blessed to be your family! You are loved all the way from Memphis, Tennessee and we can't wait for you to be in our arms forever! We are coming for you sweet girl and we can't wait to meet you and your foster family and experience Korea with you! God has blessed us beyond our wildest dreams and now He is giving us you! We love you! ~mommy and daddy (and robert and andrew too)