The Story of Rafael
By Ms. Mueller

I have never been much of a believer in Fate – that is until August 1999. I had left a position in a financial services company after 5 years with a need to pursue my original career goal, which was to work for a non-profit again. After a leisurely summer I decided it was time to find a position. I surfed the Web and low and behold there was an opening at an organization called Alliance for Children.

I interviewed with the Alliance two days after making contact. I was thrilled to be invited back for a second interview. As I finished up the second interview, a family walked in the door with their 6 month old boy who had just come home from Ecuador. My heart skipped a beat or two at witnessing this miracle, and then I knew that Alliance was the place for me. Little did I know that 9 months later, my husband and I would be on a plane heading to Ecuador to meet and adopt our amazing son, Rafael, AKA Rafey. Fate had played me right into its hands.

I had been working at the Alliance since August – it was now February 13th – when a picture floated across my desk of the most beautiful, wonderful boy I had ever seen. It was as if a lightening bolt shot through my body, as I knew that this was our son. I called my husband at work to let him know that I was bringing home a picture of an almost 2-year-old boy. His response, “I wondered when this was going to happen!” It became known to me later that Rafey was taken to the nursery in Quito on my birthday – Fate, once again, had an influence.

So began our maniacal emotional state as we worked on gathering papers, attending home study meetings, talking about older child adoption and fretting. crying, and carrying on and always, always wanting to hold Rafey in my arms and tell him how much I loved him. Throughout this time I was still working at Alliance and will forever be grateful to my colleagues for their undying support and calming influences during my highly distracted and ever worried moments.

The call came at 10pm on a Thursday night, from Filis Casey, the Executive Director at Alliance, who had literally just hung up with our resource in Ecuador. We were expected in Quito the following Wednesday. I will never forget my tears of joy nor telling Filis on the phone that I could not believe I was actually going to be a mother in less than a week, although in my heart I had been a mother since the first moment I looked at Rafey’s picture.

I guess the week flew by – I vaguely remember buying gifts for Rafey’s caretakers and packing and calling family and friends. It felt like an out of body experience as my dreams were really about to come true.

We started our journey to Quito on a Wednesday morning and, in typical Mueller fashion, we did not end up in Quito that night as planned. It was too foggy to land and thus we were diverted to Guayaquil where we spent a whopping 3 hours in a hotel room trying to catch a little shut eye before flew to Quito that morning.

We finally arrived to our destination. Rafey was looking over the balcony as we pulled up to the nursery. I see this as if it were yesterday, now some 2 ½ years ago. He was brought downstairs to meet us and as I bent down to say, “Hola, Rafael, me llamo Mama”, he ran away from me! So our life together as a family began.

The emotions my husband and I felt at that moment and since then have been as diverse as they have been overwhelming. To think that in a blink of an eye, essentially, our two year, three month old son’s entire world and comfort zone changed is awesome. Rafey handled it, I am certain, far better than I ever could. He is funny, smart, artistic, handsome, determined, loveable, loving affectionate, strong willed, spoiled, articulate and always and forever, our son. There are no words profound enough to express our love for him nor the incredible journey that we have embarked on together.

The poignant moments that we have experienced since our Family day have been numerous. I will never forget the infectious laughter of our son when he had his first bubble bath or the stoic way in which he handled his first blood tests. Or the moment he sat on my lap and let me read to him his first Winnie the Pooh book; or that indescribable moment when we were in the bedtime routine and said to me, “Mommy, I love you”. The memory of that moment still brings tears of joy to my eyes.

We are so lucky, so very lucky, to have found each other.