We're Having A Bridger!

OK, so regulations require that we not post or email any identifying information or pictures of our absolutely precious sweet beautiful perfect bright eyed makes-me-melt every time I look at his picture little man, so in lieu of his picture I'll share a picture of our first little man (Bridger) who is approximately the same weight of our new little man, Ashton McGregor. And although I would never say this to Bridger, I must say that Ashton wins hands-down on looks. Did I mention how beautiful he is?

Call details:
So, Toni sent out the bat signal as we previously arranged, but evidently it wasn't visible from the meeting room where I was giving a presentation to a client in Virginia while my husband sent me multiple text messages from New York wondering WHY ON EARTH I wasn't answering my cell phone! It was on vibrate in my purse so I didn't even look to see if there were messages until after my meeting, and when I got to the car turned to my colleague and said, "Um, I think YOU'RE going to have to drive us back to the airport..." I noticed multiple texts from my husband with the obvious "where are you???" titles and knew something was up. So my colleague took the drivers seat and I called my husband and Toni to get the news. The next 20 minutes or so are still a bit of a blur, but essentially we learned of an 11 month old little man with huge bright eyes who we just can't wait to meet.

We sped to the airport in hopes of making an earlier flight home, and realized when we got to there that my name was the only one on the rental car so I should probably be the one driving it to the rental car return. So literally a block from the return center we pulled over and I took the wheel (still shaking head to toe) and proceeded to drive to the lot...on the wrong side of the road! Let's just say I was a bit beside myself with emotions and definitely should not have been behind the wheel. Thankfully the humongous airport transfer bus meeting us head-on wasn't too mean while I meandered back to the right side of the street...My colleague forgave me thank goodness but note to all waiting families: Hide the keys to the car on referral day - your state of mind will NOT be in any condition to drive!

So, about 6 hours and 3 flight delay/changes later my husband met me at the airport with the pictures of our son printed and tulips in hand. Our hearts are still racing and our eyes have literally been pinned on his picture all day. We are beside ourselves with emotions that I can't quite seem to find words to describe.

So now we wait for a court date when Ethiopia will officially recognize us as Ashton's parents (currently this court date averages 6-8 weeks after the referral call) and then it will be another 2 weeks or so before we travel. So, if all goes well we'll be traveling sometime in June! Once we pass a successful court date we can share more details about his given name, meaning, and other information however for now you'll just have to trust us - his story is both heartbreaking and heartwarming, the heroics of his mother more humbling than anything I could ever imagine, and his face simply the sweetest most I-want-him-in-my-arms-now face I've ever seen.