Friday Quick Takes (13)

 

--- 1 ---

This past week was the birthday of Baby S, our fallthrough adoption.  You can read about that here and here and here.  He was born on February 7 and the next day was when we found out his birthmom decided to parent.  We pray for him and his family daily.  As I thought back a year ago, it all seems surreal.  I remember every detail like it was yesterday.  And at the same time, I don't feel the hurt or the pain anymore.  Anna healed all of that.  I hope that S had a great birthday and my prayer is that he always feels loved.

--- 2 ---

Wednesday the kiddos had just gotten up from nap and were having their usual snack in their high chairs.  I was doing some dishes with the radio on.  Apparently I was also dancing and singing along...  When I turned around, I saw two little babies laughing hysterically and looking at me.  Not only were they laughing, but Anna had her hands over her ears.  Apparently I looked absolutely ridiculus.  And we all had a good laugh.

--- 3 ---

I love the new BumGenius Freetime diaper.  It is so easy, being an all-in-one.  And it dries super fast (especially compared with the Elemental which takes FOREVER to dry).  It also is super absorbent.  And I love the stay-dry flaps.  And they are super easy to spray (again, especially compared to the Elemental).    And my hubby loves the no stuffing part!  And the new colors are cute, my hubby is partial to the "Albert" print, being an actuary and all :-)

--- 4 ---

Superhero?  Or Karate Kid?  Either way, my daughter is quite goofy :-)

--- 5 --- 

Sometimes Anna wanders off to a differerent room and can be found like this... sitting in a corner.  The corner was always our "time-out" place at home when I was growing up, my sister, Sara, spent her fair share of time there.  So much, in fact, that we called it "Sara's Corner."  When she saw this picture, she said, "That's my girl! Just turn yourself in, it makes things easier!"  It's a little scary how much Anna acts like her aunt sometimes :-)

--- 6 ---

I can't wait to get my hair cut on Saturday.  I thought maybe I was going to grow it out a little longer because a pony tail is just so easy everyday.  But I have super duper thick hair.  It never dries.  Especially when it's in a pony tail.  And I've always had dry, itchy, dandruffy scalp problems.  Constantly wet hair makes this problem exponentially worse.  So it's time to cut it again.  I actually really like it short, I just hate doing it everyday.  And since it's so thick, it gives me a headache after a few hours in a ponytail.  So short it is!

--- 7 ---

I'd have to say Anna's favorite thing to do right now is read.  We have books all over the house, and she's always got one in her hand.  Her room has a ton of books and they're generally strewn all about the room.  Here are her favorites, both Jeremy and I can recite all of these books.  She loves anything "Touch and feel".  She now expects all books to have things to feel.   

 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Just the beginning...

One week ago, we were going about our business as usual, working, teaching RCIA, grocery shopping, cleaning the house, etc...

Who knew our lives would do a total 360 in a matter of hours.  Here's the beginning of Anna's adoption story.  It all started back in November when we were first identified by a birth mom.  After three months of preparation for the coming of our baby boy, he was born on February 7 and he quickly melted our hearts.  24 hours later we were devestated by the news that his birth mom had decided to parent him and we would be going home empty handed and a little upset that God would let something like that happen to us. 

We then proceeded to take some time to grieve.  It wasn't easy and just when I thought I was "over it" my emotions would take a toll again.  I went to the Behold Conference, a conference focused on the dignity and roles of women.  It was one of those experiences that allowed me to really think about my emotions and kind of allow them to "do their thing."  You see, I don't like to show "weakness".  Or at least that's how I perceived it.  I don't like to show my emotions and I like to appear strong at all times.  It was the first time that I let my guard down and let myself go through the grieving process.  I really listened to what the Sisters for Life had to say and their words stuck with me.  It is natural, normal, and expected that I should feel like I did, like I had lost a child.  I left that day with a renewed sense of hope, hope that God had a plan for our family, a hope that I had lost just a few weeks prior.

And then I continued on with my daily life, taking time to really make meaningful Lenten sacrifices and added prayer into my day. 

Little did I know that as I experienced these extreme emotions, there was a woman out there who gave birth to a baby girl, made an adoption plan, chose us without even seeing our profile (she looked at our video only and fell in love) and on Thursday made the hardest, but most selfless decision of her life and she signed away her rights to her child.  Thereby giving those rights to us, as the parents she had hand chosen, and that God had hand-chosen, for this child.  God created her perfectly and held her lovingly as he guided her birthmom in her decision.

On Thursday at 11:30 I received a phone call that will forever change our lives.  Our caseworker called, and quickly told me the reason for her call.  A baby girl had been born, we had been identified as her adoptive parents, and her birthmom had already signed her surrenders.  She was our daughter and we could come pick her up in just 4 hours.  She was unnamed and while the birthmom had mentioned possibly having her first or middle name be a part of our decision, she made sure the decision was ours to make.

In a whirlwind, we made some necessary phone calls and quickly ran to buy anything and everything pink.  We were picking up our daugher!  Talk about a whirlwind!

When we got to Catholic Charities, our case worker filled us in on some details, letting us know that Anna had been in two different newborn care homes, due to one being on vacation.  She was born in Urbana and transferred to the newborn home in Lasalle until surrenders were signed.  The foster parents were on their way with her and I had talked with them on the phone some.  They had even called when she had cried just to let us hear her!  It didn't feel real yet!

Finally they arrived with her.  We decided on the name Anna.  While we had a different name picked out orginally, we changed our mind.  We had prayed a novena to St. Anne, asking for her intercession, that God would bless us with a child soon.  The novena ended the day she was born.  We had since then continued to ask St. Anne for her intercession and boy were her prayers heard!  So we named her Anna, after St. Anne and Clare after St. Clare of Assissi, whose story of strength, trust, and love of the Eucharist is a reminder daily of how our love for God should be.  After being in Assissi two years ago, we knew we would name our first daughter after her.

So anyway, I bawled when they handed her to me.  SHE. WAS. PERFECT!  Everything about her was perfect.  What a beautiful gift.  The foster parents that had cared for her were beyond wonderful and had only good things to say about our daughter.  She was a great sleeper, a great eater, and overall a very content and wonderful baby.

We brought her home and quickly had many visitors.  We celebrated her arrival and I spent the entire night looking at her (while she slept through most of it). 

As I went through the chain of events in my head, I realized quickly that God had his plan so intricately woven.  Had this birth mom contact Catholic Charities months ago, we never could have been Anna's parents.  We were out of circulation due to being identified by another birthmom and we went back into circulation the week after our fall-through.  However, it had been her plan all along to choose adoption and due to keeping the pregnancy a secret, she had chosen to wait until she was born.

We spoke with our case worker yesterday and she relayed to us that the birth mom's caseworker shared with her the name that we chose and she absolutely loved it.  She said it was beautiful and she was overjoyed to hear about us meeting her and how things were going with us.  Whiel she's not at a point where she's ready to meet Anna yet, she does want to get to know us in the future and we can't wiat to hear her story and meet the beautiful woman who gave our sweet baby girl life.  She gave us the most precious gift and she selflessly chose a path for Anna that she knew would give her the life she deserves.  I am eternally grateful for her sacrifice, for the sacrifice of her body for 9 months for Anna, and for her sacrifice of her child so that Anna could have a wonderful life.

I can't even put into words the emotions that run through me when I look at how beautiful, sweet, and wonderful she is.  I can't get enough of holding her, kissing her, cuddling her, or seeing her daddy do the same.  My heart melts each and every day and while my extra Lenten prayers have been a little neglected, my prayer of thanks is radiating all throughout the day.  I would do it all again in a heartbeat, including the 5am ER visit this morning, for that precious girl sleeping next to me right now. 

And now less than one week later, we live by Anna's schedule.  We wake up with her in the mornings and go to bed with her at night, and we spend all day trying to make sure that she is loved, cared for, happy, and that she knows who her mommy and daddy are.  What a difference a week makes!

Thanks and a name

Thank you everyone for all of the prayers.  It quite literally is what is getting us through this rough time in our adoption journey.  I cannot believe the mass amounts of people that have prayed for us and continue to do so, it means so much to us.  At one point, we said that we wish that the birth mom could see just how much support we have in our lives, just to get a glimpse of the life her child could have had... Maybe that's just being selfish of me...

Anyway, people ask us how we're doing, and in answer to that, we're doing okay.  There are certainly rough moments, but overall, we've accepted that our time will come and now it is our duty to pray for this child each and every day of our lives.  He is our "spiritual child" from here on out and we would appreciate prayers for him and his family.  I still break down quite a bit throughout the day, certain times are harder than others.  At this point, we have put our profile back into circulation and are hoping for a short wait again this time...  The wait is the hardest part of this whole thing, knowing it will start all over again and we have no idea or control over how long it is...

On another note, the name.  The birth mom never actually named him while we were at the hospital.  I think it had become a source of stress for her and she simply avoided it all.  We have been calling him by the name we picked out for the last few weeks, but honestly, I couldn't bring myself to call him that after he was born.  I sensed the hesitation on her part and knew things were not going to work out so smoothly.

The name that we have chosen for our first son is Anthony.  While this baby would have been Anthony, it is still a name that we means a great deal to us, so it is a name we will use in the future.  However, I'm simply tired of keeping it a secret, and my hubby agreed.  So there you have it, curious minds can be put to rest :-).  And just in case anyone is wondering, our favorite girl name is Abigail Clare. 

Sorry for the randomness, that's simply how my mind is functioning right now.  And again, thanks for all of the prayers and support.  We feel truly blessed by all of the people in our lives and we know that our future children are going to feel the same.

Adoption Attempt #1 = failed...

Well, our worst fears came true today when we heard from our caseworker that the birth mom has changed her mind.  She is planning on taking the baby home with her tomorrow when she's discharged.

Please keep us in your prayers as this is extremely hard for us to deal with.  We are very upset and feel very hurt and even a little bit used.

We appreciate everyone's support and prayers as we deal with all of our emotions and figure out where to go from here.

Baby Boy is here!

Our baby boy was born this morning at 8:36am.  He weighs 6 lbs, 4 oz and is 19.5 inches long (long and skinny!).  I got to hold him briefly after he was born and he is absolutely wonderful and absolutely adorable.  As of right now, we have a name picked out but haven't yet heard what the birth mom named him at birth (although we think it was the name we picked...)  So until that's official, we'll keep it a secret.  However, if everything goes as planned and he comes home with us on Thursday, the name we chose will be his name.  Confusing?  I hope not...

We are extremely happy and I can't stay away from the nursery for more than like 10 minutes (it's about time for my shift again :-)  We're looking forward to speaking with the birth mom and getting to hold him hopefully later today but until then we're hanging out at the hospital and trying very hard to keep our eyes open as we didn't really sleep last night!!

Please keep us all in your prayers, as until she signs her surrenders on Thursday, she is his parent and we are simply "visitors".  So please pray for a smooth week here at the hospital and that the adoption goes smoothly and without drama, and that we get to bring home our son on Thursday!

Getting close

The c-section date is coming up!  While time seems to be moving slowly, I know it'll get here before I know it.  We've been doing some fun last minute "getting ready" type things that may not seem all that exciting, but make us super happy that we get to do them.

For example, switching our insurance to pick up another member of the family in two weeks (not so excited about the rise in price, but excited for the reason).

We also set up a meeting with the pediatrician we would like to see!

Also taking time off work (for Jer at least, I'm pretty much done working with the exception of a random sub day here or there for the next week or so) for when the baby's born, and Jer's very quickly finishing lots of projects this week and next as it is their busy season and he's responsible for a lot of projects at work.  That way he can enjoy his week off with his wife and son (weird to say that, but oh so exciting). 

The car seat is ready and the base is installed in the car.

The diaper bag is packed and fully stocked with a few of the millions of newborn clothes people have gotten us.

The baptism is (unofficially as we have to wait till he's born and surrenders are signed) scheduled.

Cloth diapers are washed and ready for a cute bum to poop in them!

Bottles are washed, and we're holding off on buying any formula till we know if there is something that doesn't agree with him (and we'll take any extra samples from breast feeding moms around here that you are not using, cause I'm told you're given lots of samples/coupons/all kinds of stuff like that even though you're bf'ing).

Place to stay while we're waiting for baby boy to be discharged is taken care of with much thanks to friends of ours who live there (and super close to the hospital), we're so grateful for the hospitality.

Name has been solidified with the birth mom, she LOVED our compromise as there was a little issue over this at the first meeting, and nothing ended up being decided at the time.  However, she's happy with the name we chose because it means something to us and to her and we're super happy with the name we chose, it's adorable, and very special to us.  We really wanted to honor her in some way with his middle name, but the one she had in mind just wasn't going to cut it, so we compromised and now everyone is happy!

Toys/seats from a shower and stuff are washed and set up around the house (although a certain hubby complains about tripping over them in the dark...)  I think they're cute and fun to look at even though we forget they're there sometimes!

The nursery is all ready (although, this has been true for a LONG time now...)

Basically we're ready and we can't wait and time needs to go super fast for the next two weeks, until the surrenders are signed and the it can slow down big time.  Unfortunately I know it will be the opposite, but I can dream can't I!  It's really nice to do things that normal pregnant people get to do with two weeks left in their pregnancy.  Our caseworker pointed that we are "paper pregnant" and it is totally normal and we were encouraged to participate in all of the things that pregnant couples would do with two weeks left before baby comes.  Although, I guess normal pregnant couples don't have to include a phone call/meeting with a lawyer in their day to day preparations :-)  Just one more thing to do, and pay for :-(

Today's rollercoaster

We had quite the day today!  Whew!  For about a week now, we've had plans for another meeting with the birth mom today after her doctors appointment.  We planned accordingly making sure we had the afternoons off and stuff.

Then the snow came and tried to screw it all up!  First of all, I'm pretty sure I received a record number of phone calls in one morning today.  Everyone under the sun called me about something and they were all random things, it wasn't all one person or even one topic!  But that's beside the point.  One of the phone calls was our caseworker calling to tell us that S's caseworker had canceled our meeting for today.  She told us that she wasn't sure why or if it was S or her caseworker that actually canceled it, but she said she'd find out.

Cue intense emotions!  At this point, I just "knew" that everything was going to fall through, surely it was our birth mom that had canceled cause she didn't want to see us anymore and she'd changed her mind and she wanted nothing to do with us and blah blah blah.  I'd pretty much convinced myself the world was ending at this point and was a total wreck, crying and sobbing and stopping only to field more random phone calls (yeah, like the one where my dad was stuck at a gas station because the car key broke... random, and funny!).  So anyway, I was quite a wreck and my week had gone from bad to worse very quickly and I wanted to chuck the phone accross the room.

Then an hour later, our caseworker called back to clarify.  It was actually S's caseworker that canceled because driving in the snow makes her extremely nervous and S still would like to talk to us, so we should go ahead and give her a call.

I quickly laughed at myself for my earlier outburst of emotion and called S.  Now, the last time I called her, it was EXTREMELY awkward.  This time was extremely normal.  We talked a little bit about some stuff and then we decided to go ahead and meet without the caseworkers as we still had the afternoon off, the snow had stopped, and the reports of the roads were clear.  She actually really wanted to see us and she really wanted some social interaction as she's been "a total couch potato" for a few weeks now (her words).

So we drove to meet with her.  And it was awesome!  At this point she is TOTALLY committed to her adoption plan and she is very sure in her reasons and decision to place her son with us.  We had a chance to talk with her one on one and she really opened up to us and talked a lot to us about things going on in her life and stuff.  We also solidified a name with her today and we are both really excited about it, she was honored with the thought we put into the middle name for her!  She also confirmed what she said last time about wanting us at the hospital and wanting me in the delivery room.  She wants us to take him home as soon as he's released.

We also talked a lot about the future and the contact she wants with us.  She really wants to be able to attend his big events, baptism, birthday, adoption party, etc... She also asked if we'd be willing or want to come to her daughter's birthday parties to celebrate with them.  We asked her to write him a letter to read to him all of the time and to hang on his wall and she was very honored and had wanted to do something like that but didn't know if we would want that.

So all in all, it was a fantastic experience to see her by herself, no caseworkers.  After the meeting, we feel very confident about the whole situation.  We really connect well with her and we're confident that this is for real and that it's actually going to happen.  It was really nice and we're so glad we decided to go and that she was up for it.

So two and a half weeks and we hopefully will have a really fun blog post about a our really cute baby!

Whew, the last few weeks have been quite a whirlwind.  We had a fantastic Christmas, got to see a lot of family and eat a LOT of great food!  We enjoyed visitors the week of New Years and had a great time hanging out with friends on New Year's Eve.  Here is a list of highlights of the last few weeks, in no particular order (except for the first!):

1) The birth mom had a sonogram last Thursday.  Since our case worker and her caseworker were both "off" last week (I use quotes because her case worker still went with her to the appointment even though she was on vacation, she's a super sweet lady) we didn't hear any information until yesterday.  Our caseworker emailed and said that basically everything looks good.  Yes, the baby is in fact a boy (since the change in due dates we were a little curious as the first sonogram may have been to early to determine a gender...) but it was confirmed, it's a baby boy.  They also confirmed the new due date of mid-Feb and confirmed the scheduled c-section date of February 7. Everyone looks healthy and we are hoping to set up another meeting with the birth mom in the near future.

2) A few friends of mine threw a baby shower for us last week with some of our friends and that was a lot of fun.  I was so grateful to them.  I knew that after the baby came there would be a shower with family and friends but it was super nice of them to plan one before (although at the time, his due date hadn't changed...).  We got some really cute things and I've had fun organizing the closet.  Although we already have way too many newborn baby boy clothes, but they're so darn cute...

3) Archbishop John Myers (from Newark, New Jersey) was in town visiting his family (friends of our family).  He said a Mass and then they had a get together at their home afterward.  It was nice to chat with him a little bit and to celebrate during the Christmas season in that way!

4) It was so nice to see so much family at Christmas, we had a blast catching up with family, playing games, and just hanging out celebrating the birth of Christ with the people we love!

5) Jon and Justine were up from Florida visiting their families for Christmas and they decided to make a trip to Bloomington to see their friends here.  They stayed with us for a few days and we had fun hanging out with them, David and Stephanie, and my sister and her fiance on New Years Eve.  We enjoyed playing our new Wii game and having some girl chat!

6) We went to the mandatory Baptism Prep class at our parish yesterday.  That was exciting and made things seem a little more real.  We're hoping to have a baptism at the end of February (before Lent!) for our baby boy!

7) Yesterday I went with Veronica and her girls to IKEA.  I'd never been before and so I jumped on the opportunity to go with them.  For an organization freak like me, it was pretty cool.  I have some really cool ideas for our playroom downstairs... We don't really need it now, but I'm hoping about a year from now I can have some fun with it!

8) We bought a freezer.  Using part of Jer's bonus money and money from our grandparents from Christmas, we decided to purchase a freezer.  We've wanted one for a while, and we finally got it.  Since then I have made like 6 different meals (enough food for about 20+ meals) and labeled them and organized them in our freezer.  I said that I feel a little bit like a squirrel stock piling food for the winter, but I'm hoping that this way when baby boy makes his appearance, I don't have to worry about cooking for a while!  And I won't have to grocery shop until like March... (other than things like milk and eggs)

9) Tonight I was asked to share our journey of infertility with a group of women in Peoria.  It has been interesting to reflect on the last 2 1/2 years and see where we started and where we are currently, waiting for our son to be born.

10) Jeremy was proud of me today when I turned down a sub job for the first time ever.  I always say yes, it doesn't really matter what else I had planned to do.  Today I had a lot of catching up on the house planned and I woke up without a voice (I've been battling some allergy issues with the inconsistent weather we've been having) so I told them I couldn't come in.  It's nice once in a while to just take a day for me. I've tried to stay really busy because days when I am bored make time go by really slow.  I'm trying to make the next month go by fast, because February 7 seems like eons away right now.  But today I decided to take a day for me and enjoy a relaxing day at home doing like a billion loads of laundry!


So that's been our last month in a nutshell.  Like I said, I'm willing the next month to go by quickly as we eagerly await the c-section date!  As Jeremy and I talked about 2010 and our live throughout the year, we are amazed at how much our lives have changed and how many blessings we have in our lives.  We certainly look forward to a wonderful 2011 and hopefully the opportunity to become parents this year.  We also are looking forward to the many weddings we have this year beginning in March and ending with my sister's in October!!

Watch what you wish for!

Well, I ate my words today "no news is good news..."

Our case worker called about an hour after I posted that and had news for us.  It's good in some respect, bad in others.  The really good news is that the birth mom and the baby are healthy.  Everything looked great!  She also is very set in her adoption plan still and had simply lost our contact info (hence the lack of knowledge...).  The not so fantastic news is that her due date was moved... significantly... like a month and a half...  She now has a tentative c-section date for February 7!  Considering we were originally told sometime next week, that is quite the shock!  We're not all the way sure what to think at the moment, other than disbelief!

So anyway, she has a sonogram in two weeks at which point, hopefully the due date/c-section date will be more set in stone.  Then we do more waiting... We know how much I love waiting...  Another month and a half of this seems like sheer torture at the moment (as I'm sure it does for her as she felt ready to pop when we met her 3 weeks ago)!!!

The blessing in all of this is that baby boy gets another 5-6 weeks of good prenatal care.  He gets a chance to grow and "cook" a little longer!  In addition, it gives us a chance to get to know the birth mom better and have increased contact with her over the next month or so.  The cynical part of me also says that it gives her more time to change her mind, but we'll just ignore the fact that I thought that...

No news is good news?

We've had a lot of people asking, so here's an easy way to let everyone know.  So far, there's no more news regarding the baby.  So in the spirit of being positive, we're assuming no news is good news.

We know that the birth mom had a doctors appointment and sonogram yesterday.  We know that her case worker is in touch with her and our case worker is in touch with her case worker, who is then in touch with us.  And we know that the due date is quickly approaching.

We also know that our nerves are a mess and that each day we get more and more anxious.  I feel like everyone assumes that we are just beyond excited at this point.  The reality, no matter how excited we are, is that there are sill so many unknowns and so many things that could go "wrong" at this point.  The fact is, emotionally, we are quite the basket case at this point.  You never know when the fears and nerves are going to take over and you never know when the excitement is going to take over.

There's a lot of emotions at this point.  A few of my friends and coworkers have likened it to the last month of pregnancy and I would tend to agree.  However, as you near the end of a pregnancy, the fact is, the end result IS an addition to your family.  Now, obviously things can go wrong or not according to plan and I'm fully aware of that, but I think our struggle in this last waiting period is the reality that there may NOT be a baby at the end of this particular journey.  Sure we will put our names back in circulation, but this time, there is a very real possibility that it WON'T work out nicely.  And while we try not to dwell on that, it's always there in the back of our minds.

So I guess what I'm trying to say with all of this is to bear with us.  We are at a point where we WANT to know information but we DON'T know anything more.  It is extremely hard to relay that to others who are just as excited as we are and want information as well.  When we do know information (that we CAN share), we WILL share it.  We are not secretive people, we are very open and honest about our lives.

The point of this post didn't intend to be a whine session, however, I guess as my emotions are a wreck, that's what came out.  So continue to pray for us and for the birth mom and baby boy.  Hopefully we will know something soon (you know, like a c-section date) but until then we've tried to accept the fact that it's all in God's hands and what better hands for it to be in, and when there's important information to know, we'll know it.

IT'S A.....

BOY!

Disclaimer:  For those of you that were hoping for a phone call, I'm just going to say that we are 100% exhausted from a very emotionally and physically draining day... So a blog post will have to do, and I apologize in advance it if is not very coherent...

Okay, now on to the good stuff!  We got to meet with our birthmom today who I'm just going to call S for the sake of this post and the fact that I don't want to type out birthmom over and over again.  It was wonderful to meet her and get to know her a little bit better.  It is truly a unique experience to get to meet the mother of your child!  I had all kinds of preconceived notions going into it and I can honestly say none of them were even close to correct. And we also got the exciting news that she's having a boy!!!

It was a wonderful chance for us to understand her story and what led her here now.  S gave us some wonderful insights into her life and her choice to make an adoption plan.  I have to say her reasoning and intentions are so carefully thought out and planned that I couldn't help but feel comforted by her.  So all in all, it was an effective meeting and a great chance for her to get to know us better and us to get to know her better.

She also asked me if I would be in the room with her during her scheduled c-section.  Due to health reasons, they are going to schedule one and it'll probably be in about 3 weeks, most likely the week before Christmas.  I was super excited about this, it definitely made me cry!!!  She also told us that she would like us to be at the hospital as much as possible and she would like us to be the ones to take the baby home (instead of interim care).  So these were all things that we were super thrilled about.  She also chanted, "You're gonna have a baby" to us multiple times :-)

We also were very curious about what it was about us that made her choose our profile.  S told us that she really picked us because she wants an ongoing relationship with the child and that was something that we clearly stated in our video.  She wants to have a chance to be a part of his life while giving him the chance to be raised by people who can give him the life that she wants for him.  So that was touching and she said that all of them cried when they watched our video and she knew the moment she saw it that we were going to be the parents of her child.  (Again, it made me cry)

The one thing that has yet to be nailed down is a name, there was some conflict here as she had a name in mind and so did we and they're like not even on the same planet of name choices...  So Jeremy and I think we've come up with a solution that will appease everyone (and we REALLY like) but I guess we won't know for sure until we talk with her again!

I would just like to ask a favor of everyone at this point...  Please pray for the health and safety of both S and baby.  At this point she's really close to the soon to be scheduled due date and she could use all the prayers you can give her, she has already become a part of our family and no matter what happens, she will always hold a special place in our lives, so I'd appreciate your prayers for her and the child that she's caring for.

I CAN'T EVEN DESCRIBE...

...OUR JOY AT THE MOMENT!!!

Yes, it's the post you've all been waiting for (of course no one more so than Jeremy and I).

It is fitting that during National Adoption Month, we are identified by a birth parent as the (hopeful) adoptive parents of her unborn child!!!!  Yes, we got our long awaited phone call today.  It went a little something like this:

Last week we had a 6 month licensing review at which point our case worker had to do another walk through of our home, inform us of any program changes, ask us some really seemingly pointless questions (for example:  "Now you know after you get a baby, you will have to feed it right? **She HAS to ask these, but how dumb is that) and gave us updates on our status within the program.  It was a very uplifting meeting as she told us that our profile had been viewed 4-5 times (about once a month, pretty good considering what we thought we were getting viewed) and she told us that we actually were in a pile of prospective adoptive parents waiting for a birth mom at the moment.  She did not know when she would pick, but (in hindsight) we think she may have had some inside information on this.  She gave us some pretty specific details and kinda led us to get our hopes up... something she generally doesn't do...

Fast forward to today...  I got a phone call from my caseworker and returned the call after school (of course, while I was still AT school).  I was in the hallway when she said "Are you sitting down?" and I shouted and burst into tears, scaring some kids and receiving some pretty strange looks...  So I talked with her for a while and all the time she's giving me lots of details and such and I'm saying to myself "Pinch me" and "I need to call Jeremy".  Once I finally got off the phone with her and had cried for a good fifteen minutes at the point, I called Jeremy.

His first response was, "You're not joking are you?"  That would be mean of me... I drove (maybe a little too quickly) to pick him up at which point I couldn't remember driving there, one of those surreal times when you're not sure how you got from one place to another and made him get in the drivers seat. We then went to tell our parents and we spent lots of time on the phone telling sisters, brothers and grandparents and lots of friends.

So, the details, that we can share (most are confidential) are:  the birth mom is due January 4 (YES, THAT IS LIKE LESS THAN TWO MONTHS AWAY, WE COULD BE PARENTS AT CHRISTMASTIME!), other than we know that we will get to meet the birth mom on Monday, November 29th and get a chance to talk with her and get to know her a little bit.  We do not know boy or girl (neither does she) and we don't know (and can't share) much about her yet.

So, keep the prayers coming.  We are praying very hard for a smooth adoption and (selfishly) that she doesn't change her mind.  Prayers, prayers, prayers please, for the birth mom, the baby, and for us!


P.S. this blog post has taken me like 2 hours to write because we keep getting fun returned phone calls!