We received our *first* referrals on Wednesday.

Everything sounded really good about them:

1. Biological siblings
2. Three (3) and four (4) years old
3. We would travel in mid-August; and go back four weeks later to pick them up. Ten day waiting period is waived in their region.
4. Both have blonde hair and blue eyes
5. Photos are available now; we could probably get more information, like photos and medicals, before we traveled
6. Did I mention that the sibling set was a boy (3) and a girl (4)?

For many (even myself), this sounds like a wonderful referral. And it was. The children were cute. But looking at their photos we just didn't see our children. It was a very strong feeling. We thought we wanted two girls, and after having been presented this wonderful opportunity, we felt even more strongly that our preference is really going to be our choice moving forward.

I always thought we would accept our first referral unless the children had major medical issues. So it's weird to turn down these referrals based on a gender preference. We really aren't shallow people. When we talked to our agency director yesterday, we asked why he presented this sibling set. He said that he had our #1 preference being "siblings" followed by "girls". So we re-adjusted our preference with him and should only be considering two girls in the future. (He guesses that we should receive a referral for sibling girls within the next three months; if we just wanted two girls, we could probably have a referral sooner.)

I must admit, I did have a couple of hours of thinking about what it would be like to have a boy. Boys are great. But there are about a dozen reasons why we see ourselves as a "girl family". The reasons are somewhat personal or would be laughed at if I wrote them here so I won't.

So the wait goes on! (Dossier in Russia for three months)