I learned yesterday that the committee at IHNFA met last Friday May 25th (yay!!!) and made I think seven referrals! I don't know any of the details as to whether they were boys or girls or what ages the children were or if any of them were siblings or if any had special needs or anything else (though I think that about covers all the options). But wow: seven referrals!! The procedure as I understand it is that the wait list is updated after all the families have accepted their referrals, which is probably in another week from now. But holy cow: we have GOT to be close now! Best case scenario is that we will be #1 on the wait list at that point (worse case scenario is that we won't move at all -- don't even want to think about that! Not sure how we would even calculate reasonable worst case scenario [yes, there really is such a thing as reasonable worst case scenario!] so I won't worry about that either!) It would be amazing to be #1 on the list, but even if we are something like 2 or 3 or 4 or 5, we are seriously close to the top, and it is quite possible that we could receive our referral at the next committee, which is absolutely incredible to think about. Of course, it may not happen: all the children available at that point could be outside our parameters, but it is way possible that we could be one of the lucky ones!! So, May brought some wonderful news, even if it didn't bring the best possible news for our family.
Oh, by the way, it doesn't look like we will be making any change to our parameters at this point, like I had referenced in my last post. We were considering increasing the age parameter a little bit, but it was recommended to us to just sit tight, since we are so close to the top, and we don't want to do anything that that would slow down a referral. Like I said, I felt like it was in God's hands whether we made the change or not, and I am comfortable leaving things as they are and would have been comfortable making the change too.
So hopefully we will hear our big news from the next committee meeting, hopefully in June. I tell you: it is SO much easier in this wait now that school is out. My days are completely full with swimming and reading and biking and scootering and all the other fun summer stuff. And to sweeten the deal even more, next week is my favorite week of the whole summer: Vacation Bible School!! I really love it. I am the music lady again this year, and the songs are great. I am really looking forward to doing them with the kids. Our theme is Daniel: Captivity in Babylon. It is our first time doing an historical VBS, and it has been so much fun so far: learning the songs and their motions and decorating the school gym to look like ancient Babylon. It is amazing what you can do with a bunch of cardboard boxes, crepe paper, paint, and a bunch of duct tape! I'm going to wear an outfit that I got in Morocco ages ago, and even though Morocco isn't exactly ancient Babylon, I have a feeling none of the kids will mind too much. Can't wait!!