We have a SON!!!! A SON!!!!

It's official...we have a SON! 

His name is Roy Carl Rettew.  He is named after both of our Dads.  We love them so!  He is soooo ADORABLE!  I'm sorry to say, I'm not allowed to post his photo here until we have the official approval from China.  

We want to tell you how we KNOW he is our son....

We started this adoption journey back in the early fall.  Our home study was promised to be complete by Thanksgiving.  We did not receive the official home study until AFTER Valentines Day!  Even when we were soo frustrated....I had a feeling there was a reason for this ridiculous delay.  As it turns out...Roy's file was not even available until a few days ago!!!!  If our home study had been done by thanksgiving...we would most likely not been matched to him.  I cringe at that thought!

On Friday afternoon, our agency sent us an email saying we were officially "DTC", all documents were on their way to China!!!  Were we ecstatic & relieved!  Only 10 minutes later, we received another email from our agency saying they had a file for us to review over the weekend.  :-)  We were in complete shock!  We were not expecting any files for at least a month or more!  We opened his file and read it.  Mike knew immediately that he was our son!  I went into bit of a panic mode - thinking it was so soon - how can this be?!?!  I spent the night praying like crazy - by Saturday night I knew as well.  Sunday morning I woke up so full of JOY JOY JOY!  It really had sunk in-we had our boy!!!!

Here is a really crazy part --- Earlier on Friday morning, I had a play-date with my cousin, Kristina.  She & I were so excited that we were officially going to be DTC that day! I was talking about our future child & was daydreaming of him or her.  I even said 3 things that I would love our child "to have".

1. That he or she be from the same orphanage as Matthew (Kristina's son, whom I helped her bring home this past summer).  An orphanage is never ideal for any child - but this orphanage was the nicest I'd ever seen.
2. My second wish was that he or she be in a foster family.  That is such a big thing - this means the child gets soo much more attention and gets to see what a family structure is like.  Otherwise, our child would be in a room with 30+kids and only one or two nannies.  That is just NOT ENOUGH attention. (It’s a foster partnership through the orphanage). 
3. Lastly...my wish was that our child have the name "Song" in his or her Chinese name. I know - crazy, right??  This was because Matthew (my little cousin) had that in his Chinese name.  Matthew was a big big part of us starting this adoption.  

The chances of our child having 1 of the above is huge...nevermind all 3! Well...don't you know, when we opened up the file - Our child had all 3 of the above!!!!!  What a confirmation!  I chuckle at myself even doubting for a second that this was our son.  Our beloved beloved son. 

Please keep Roy & all of us in your prayers.  We are soo anxious to bring him home! We want to get on a plane today & go get him.  Unfortunately, we have about 4-6months more of paperwork & waiting ahead of us.

Roy turns 2 tomorrow!  My heart aches at missing this milestone - but we will be there for sooo many more.

1 Samuel 1:27-28 (NIV)

²⁷ I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me

what I asked of him. ²⁸ So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.”