tricks and treats

Disclaimer: My head is full tonight, so I might ramble. I promise I'll try to make it make sense.


I'll start with the treats...

Today Kevin and I got a very fun phone call. As I sat at lunch with my teacher friends in a loud, adolescent filled cafeteria my phone rang. We had all been glued to it, waiting for the news. Side note here: I love love love working at my school. There is just so much support. So when it finally rang at 12:42 pm I practically ran into the hallway. J from Holt greeted me and I asked if I could call Kevin to 3-way him in. Once he was on the phone, she said something like, "I'm glad you're both on the phone for this because I have some great news. You've been selected!" We both thanked her profusely. Why did we thank her? She didn't do anything. Maybe it was our natural southern instinct to just express our appreciation. Regardless, she was thrown at least six thank yous between the two of us. And that was it. The whole call lasted about 3 minutes.
Everyone has the same two questions now: When will we get her? What are the next steps?
I know you're shocked to hear this answer, but we don't know. We have read the wait time is anywhere between 3-9 months. My guess is we'll be on the latter end of that. Kevin and I have agreed to pray for travel in April. As far as what's next, I am waiting on an email that tells me those steps. All I know is that Korea will be informed of the match and we'll go from there.
When I walked back into the lunchroom after taking the phone call, the ENTIRE cafeteria was cheering and clapping, teachers and students. I'm not sure the students knew why they were cheering, but they were completely sold out for it!
In fact, one kid told me later, "So I thought something big happened."
To which I responded, "Well, that was kinda big for me."
And he said, "No, I mean, like, to America."

Gotcha.

Lots of hugs, tears, and high-fives (I don't hug my male students) were exchanged and it was a grand 2 minute celebration. Ahhhh....

I had TONS, absolutely tons of texts and emails coming in immediately, and they were all precious and warmed my soul. The one that really made the news real was from my friend Liz. Her email was only two sentences.
Just saw this on the photo listing site. We are so blessed to know her family.
With this picture attached.

Oh. My. Word. I was speechless.

So here's the colorful picture because I know you'd rather see that. :)

My students also left me these little messages on my board after lunch.

And now for the tricks...

Upon hearing my news, my students went into full Q&A mode. This can be dangerous when you teach unfiltered teenagers. These are some of the lovely conversations I was involved in today.

Student: Why are you adopting? Can't you just make one?
Me: Well, God told us to adopt so we did.
Student: Whatever.

Student #1: What are you gonna name her?
Me: Probably Gia.
Student #2: What? What kind of name is Gia?
Me: Seriously? You don't think that was kind of rude the way you asked that?
Student #2: I just think it's a stupid name.

Student: When she comes home, she'll just speak Korean for the rest of her life, huh?
Me: Yep, they come pre-programmed like that.

Student: Are you adopting from Korea so she can do your nails?
Me: I had no comment for this one. And it was wise that I held my tongue. I'm sure my face said it all.

Despite those pearls of wisdom, today was really great.

Sending Hugs