1 year ago today we accepted 2 referrals

This is the one and only picture we have of Macey. We saw this picture one year ago today. We saw the picture and chose her before we met her. We knew we were coming for Marcus and had seen his picture before. Today was our SDA appointment. The official day we had been waiting for. It is the job of the facilitator to have their files there for us when we arrived. I was so glad it was the two children we had requested. Nothing is ever done until it's done. All we knew was there was a little girl, 4 years old with Down syndrome available for adoption. We had no medical history or name. We were elated to have a face with the child we had in our mind. The four of us thought she was so beautiful. We couldn't wait to meet them both.
Usually you accept the referral(s) then have to wait a day to have the paperwork processed. I remember after our appointment our facilitator rushing us out the door, into a parked, black Mercedes and off to the notary to have Macey's paperwork completed. The notary was behind a black door with no name or sign advertising this was indeed the notary office. I felt like we were in a scene from a movie. We drove fast through town, waited while they notarized the necessary documents then back to the SDA office. Jamie, our missionary friend took Taylor and Tanner to McDonald's in the center of Kiev for an ice cream cone. They missed all of the excitement. We were so glad to have Jamie with us. She was a huge help when we needed it most. We were asked to come back that evening by 5pm to pick up the completed referrals for both Marcus and Macey. All of this was done on the same day. We were blessed to have it completed. We knew then that the next day we would make the 8 hour drive south to meet Marcus and Macey. As you can tell this was one of the most exciting times of our lives. We were officially on our way to meet the children God called us to and they didn't even know we were coming.