Step one...

The baby bedding was delivered yesterday.  I am so happy with it!  Can't wait for the furniture to get here so we can put it all together.

Fun stuff

The baby bedding should be delivered today and the furniture was ordered over the weekend.  Getting closer to being able to set up the nursery.  So fun!

Joel's cousin & I discovered that we can make our own baby tutus & flower barrettes for headbands & beanies.  They turned out so well.  Super easy & no sewing!  Can be pretty time consuming, but it's still really fun.  A plus... I loved spending time with Tammy being crafty!  ;)

First Glimpse

Our birth mother had an ultrsound this week.  To be there was so exciting.  It was no less exciting that I wasn't the one pregnant and a plus... I didn't have to mess with the gloopy stuff all over my belly.  :)  The baby is at 21 weeks and weighs about one pound.  Everything looked great, nothing out of the ordinary could be seen. 

We received our 2nd confirmation that the baby is a girl so we've gone ahead and ordered the bedding for the nursery. 

The furniture should be ordered tomorrow.  So excited to get started decorating!

Things are moving right along.  So about 4-4 1/2 months left.  That doesn't seem very far off at all.  She'll be here before we know it.

She likes us! She really, really likes us!

Apparently Joel and I proved ourselves to be worthy of being given one of the greatest gifts on Earth...a child.  The b/m (birth mother) that we met with over the weekend told our case worker that she wants us to adopt her baby.  It's so surreal.  We still have a long road ahead of us, but in approximately 5 months we'll have a brand new baby in our lives.  After almost 13 years, a child will again bless us with love & joy.  It's still hard to imagine, but we can't help but be excited about making plans for the baby's name, the nursery, adorable little outfits....I could go on & on!

Back to reality...we need lots of prayers that the b/m stays on the right path for the health of the baby & herself.  That is our main concern at this point.  As always, any encouraging words, thoughts, and prayers are more than welcome!

I'm in trouble

Yesterday my mom & I went shopping for baby furniture.  My parents have generously offered to buy the crib, dresser, changing topper, & night stand from Pottery Barn Kids.

Thanks mom & dad!  That leaves the conversion kit for the crib, mattress, changing pad, bedding, and the rocker.  I discovered the greatest glider rocker at Babies R Us!  Super comfy and it reclines, hands free!

I'm still deciding on the bedding, but we probably need to wait until we're for sure on the gender of a baby.  We've gotten really excited for a girl though.  It's so strange, we've always been so partial to boys.  Oh but the little girls clothes I saw yesterday...they were so cute!  We're probably going to need a clothing allowance!  It was so fun looking at everything yesterday.  After 4 hours, I was completely exhausted & on overload.  I hope we hear from the case worker soon...I'm anxious to know what the birth mother thought after meeting us.

Please keep your fingers crossed & the prayers coming!

Meeting: Part 2

After many re-scheduling attempts we finally met with the case worker and birth mother.  It was a little strained, but overall I think it went well.  The case worker thought so too.  The birth mother asked us some direct questions; about Aaron, what Joel does for a living, what my parents do/did, if we live busy lives, if we have talked to anyone else about adoption, how do we feel about adopting a Hispanic child, did we prefer a boy or a girl, have I always liked football.  I'm sure there are more, but that's all I can think of right now.  There was a connection with Aaron.  She almost lost her son from an accidental ingestion of cintronella oil.  He was in ICU for 2 weeks, but he survived and is a normally, healthy, happy boy.  She was interested in knowing about my life growing up on a ranch.  She said she would love to live in the country like that, on a farm.  We showed her a picture of Aaron and she showed us some pictures of her daughter (7) & son (4).  They're adorable.  She admitted she's a little biased towards her son because of the "close call".

Her disposition was a little hard to read.  I don't think she felt well, she had taken some phenergen earlier in the day and was extremely tired.  She seemed to go out of her way to flash me a smile every so often, which made me feel more at ease.  It might have also been a little uncomfortable for her as her "friend" came with her.  He was a nice, young, Hispanic man.

We found out a little bit more about her "raising".  She said she was pretty much on her own, from the time she was 11.  She lived with her grandfather who had altzheimer's, so she had to pretty much take care of herself.  Bless her heart, she's had it hard.  She's lived in California and all over Texas.

So now we wait for the case worker to let us know if the birth mother has solely chosen us or if she wants to meet with other families before deciding for sure.

Wow.  That's a lot of information, but I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting something.  I'll be sure to post more if I remember or as soon as we hear more.

Meeting

Hoping to hear about our meeting with the birth mother today.  There might be some logistical issues, so we may have to travel to Clinton to meet with her.  I'm anxious to see how she'll react to us.  Hopefully she'll like us as much in person as she does on paper.

Exciting update!

We have exciting news, but we don't want to get to far ahead of ourselves.

On Tuesday we took some profile books to the attorneys.  We were there for an hour & a half talking.  They told us about a young girl that hasn't been matched yet and she would be coming in the next day to look at families & have an ultrasound.  We told them to show her our profile.

Yesterday evening we got a call from the attorneys.  They showed her 4 families and we are her #1 choice.  She wants to  meet us so we will have to call the case worker next week to set up a meeting.  The ultrasound showed a healthy baby girl!  She should be born somewhere between the middle of May & beginning of June.  Oh my....I'm not sure I know what to do with a little girl.  :)  I guess Joel might know since he has two younger sisters.  ;)

Now, here's where it gets crazy.  The birthmother is a big mess.  She's 22 and including this pregnancy she's been pregnant 6 times.  Her first pregnancy was at the age of 13.  There are some health issues that need to be prayed about because she smokes cigarettes and has used drugs, but all her babies have been healthy so far.  She's raising 2, had 1 abortion, 1 miscarriage, and placed 1 for adoption last year.

So needless to say there's a lot to think about & pray about.  I'm excited to meet her.  We'll update more after the meeting.