Someone pinch me!

It's been over a week since our referral. It's hard to believe this is actually happening!
While waiting, I wondered every day what it would be like to know who our child is. I saw others get their referrals and I dreamed about getting our own. Then it happened to us, and it feels surreal.

After getting our referral on Wednesday we went to dinner at a steak restaurant and started our list of names. The list was very short. There are millions of names in the world and between the two of us we could think of about 6.

We also had HoYoung's file reviewed by an international adoption pediatrician, who emailed the results to us by Thursday night. It's amazing how he is growing!

Friday we made a trip to Babies'R'Us, and Saturday we made the treck to Maryland to the US' largest babystore (which was awesome!). We bought a small baby photo album to send to him, which was promptly destroyed by Casper.

I ordered a car seat and we bought some shirts for our son. It's hard to guess what size he will be wearing when he comes home.

We spent much of the weekend filling out our acceptance paperwork. Thanks to my inability to follow instructions, some of the forms had to be redone 4 times. Oops!

Somewhere along the way the name Ben grew on us. Actually what happened was that I kept on referring to our child as Ben HoYoung and it stuck.

I've plastered my cube with his pictures and glance at them throughout the day. It's almost too much to  take to really look at them.

Everyone has been absolutely amazing. I'm blown away with how many people are stopping by my desk to congratulate me and asking if there's anything I need. The ladies who work for one of our vendors bought the most adorable outfits for little Ben. My friends at work spend hours looking at babystuff online and email me links to cute outfits. They've been showing Ben's picture to their friends and families. Friends are offering to send their baby stuff. Even my parents are excited and are shopping for their grandson. I love that everyone accepts that this is our son, no questions asked.

There are moments when this is absolutely real, and it's overwhelming. It's hard to put into words. I'm awed that this perfect human being is ours to take of and raise. Sometimes I look at his picture and am completely overtaken by the most powerful feeling and I am almost left breathless. This is the most humbling experience I've ever had and while it's not possible for me to do this physically, in my mind I am on my knees thanking God for this miracle every second of the day.