life changes fast. life changes in an instant.

well, i must say that we are the parents of two little pancakes! all we know right now is that we have two little girls. our oldest was born on June 3o, 2007. her name is Hilina - as far as I can tell it is a derrivative of Helen, and means light. she will be 14 weeks on Saturday. our youngest was born on July 23, 2007. her name is Toke Salato - not sure on this meaning yet, might mean two weeks, she will be 11 weeks on monday. they are about 3.5 weeks apart.

how it happened:

we had just finished dinner, tortellini with tomato basil. were having a nice conversation with our friend mike about places we've been and liked. i was reserving a car for our camping trip and ben's phone rings...
we have some friends in town from oregon (which is also where our adoption agency is located) and so when he looked at his phone and said where is 503?, mike said oregon, and we assumed it was one of the guys calling to meet up. when he said, 'yes this is ben...' and walked into the bedroom i knew it was Dove. i looked at mike, i looked at ben's face. i started screaming and ran into the bedroom and ripped the phone out of ben's hand. i must have sounded like a crazy person because i kept screaming are you kidding me? are you kidding me? oh my gosh, this isn't happening, really, tami? really? i guess because she had said to ben and not me that she knew who our daughters were it wasn't registering. once i finally calmed down and took a few deep breaths, she told me their names and birthdays.
this is how ben said his initial few seconds before i stole the phone went: she said "hi ben, sorry to call you so late. how are you? (i was like shut your mouth, what? what?). i said i was fine. well, i'm just calling to let you know that you should be getting your referral within the week. i wanted to give you a heads up. then this crazy woman hit me over the head and grabbed the phone from my ear as if her life depended on it. (thanks, ben)
so basically what this means is that we have been matched with two real girls and that in the next week or so we'll get our official referral from MOWA with more information - like where they were born, how much they weigh, where they are now, medical information, family information, etc. until then we can just relax and know that the waiting is (almost) over.

other things of consequence I will want to remember:

we recieved our referral on Oct. 3, 2007. Ben and I met on Oct. 3, 2003 at Grace and Jackson's rehersal dinner. We had met a few times before but this is when we had our first conversation and ben told me he 'thought about me all the time even though he didn't know me.." p.s. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY GRACE AND JACK!!!

we waited a few days shy of 6 months for our referral. given that we started this in april of 2006 - it took 18 months from start to referral which is the same length of 2 gestational periods. HAHAHA.

on tuesday night ben and i met at St Patrick's cathedral on 50th. we went in and sat down and prayed for the girls. and for their mothers. and all of their health. and for patience. and that we would get our referral soon. and then after being there long enough for our knees to start hurting, we got up and each lit a candle.

ok. i am sure i will have much more to write later but i just wanted to get this all up there and to say thanks for all the people who have been praying for us, and waiting with us. thank you thank you thank you all. life is better than good.

As cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country.
Proverbs 26:25