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Four weeks ago today our phone rang at 6:40am. Today, our son is one month old! Amazing!! We're estimating that he is close to 8lbs now and 20" long (we'll find out for sure later this week).
He loves to look at our faces and he recognizes all of our voices now. When I talk, he turns his head in my direction no matter who is holding him or how far away I am. It's pretty cool to be experiencing all these things with him, yet it makes me wonder what Marnina was like as a newborn. Anyway....Matt is making him do crazy antics like take piggyback rides on Marnina, walk across the floor with sound effects, do hand motions to songs, etc. I just apologize to Elijah and tell him he might as well get used to it.
We took Elijah for his first pictures yesterday. Here are a few of our favorite shots:
This afternoon, the ladies of our church threw Elijah a "Welcome to the Family" shower. It was sweet and the families in our church were very generous to us. We're so blessed!
And lastly, thanks to all of our friends, neighbors, and church family who provided meals, finances, gifts, and hand-me-downs. You are all appreciated more than words can say!!
Let me introduce you to my first child, Marnina. It was on July 1, 2007 that I held her in my arms for the first time. She was nine months old and you can read about our trip to China here. She has been our only child for almost 3 years. We were a bit worried about how she would handle the transition once Elijah joined our family, but we were surprised with a sweet, caring, helpful, big sister!
I'm trying to find ways to let her help me throughout the day like giving Elijah his pacifier, talking to him when he's fussy, pushing him in the swing, and fetching things for Mama. Usually, she responds to calls to help out with "Okay, sure Mama. I'd love to." It doesn't get much better than that!
In the 18 days we've had Elijah home, there have been only two times Marnina has had trouble."Mama, put the baby down and come play in my room.""I'm sad because you're feeding baby Elijah."I can say that it made me sad to hear those words, not because Marnina was bring unhelpful at the time, but because I had not been spending as much time with her those days as I should have. But I'm still learning, too, how to be a mom to two small kids. It's a challenge, and I still haven't figured out the best way to do a big shopping trip with them both on my own (Marnina wants to ride in the cart still), but I wouldn't trade my life right now for anything else.
Elijah Thomas Jeremiah....how did he get that long name?
Elijah
Matt and I had never agreed on boy names - not even when we were waiting for a child from China. We know that our chances of getting a boy from China were slim, but we wanted to be prepared. We never ended up with a name. But, in early February, I had been reading through I and II Kings. Also during this time, a couple that had adopted a baby boy through our new agency had some bad news. Their little boy, Eli (short for Elijah), was in need of a liver transplant. He was a brave little guy and his parents were so strong in faith. On February 17th, we were to meet with our agency director, but the meeting was canceled while en route. Later that day, we found out that Baby Eli went in for the transplant surgery early in the morning, but did not survive. My Bible reading that day had me in Ii Kinds 2 when Elijah was taken up to heaven. I wrote in my journal all the things that Elijah, the prophet, had done and witnessed in his life.
Elijah = "The Lord is My God", prophet, spoke to Kinds, followed the Lord unswervingly, fed by ravens, performed a miracle at the widow's house of never ending cake & oil during a drought, prayed for the widow's son to live and he did (after he had already died), had a reputation among prophets and kings as one who spoke the words of the Lord, challenged Baal's prophets to sacrifice without fire and God brought the fire for Elijah, had the prophets of Baal killed to help rid the kingdom of idol worship, fled from Jezebel and was weary from his work, spoken to by God in a whisper, experienced the compassion of God as he heard "get up and eat for the journey is too much for you", ran faster than a chariot, fire came down from heaven and consumed the army sent to capture him, had such a nurturing relationship with his apprentice Elisha that he refused to leave his side, used his cloak to part the waters of the Jordan and walked across dry land, knew the the Lord was going to take him, a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind, he did not experience death, appeared with Moses to minister to Jesus at the transfiguration, was a man just like us.
I asked Matt later that night, "what do you think of the name Elijah for a boy?" He said, "Hmmm..." with an expression of - that's not that bad. Ah-ha! We had a winner!! Four days later, we got the phone call the a baby boy was born and were we interested in adopting him.
Thomas
There is a man of God in our church who has had a big impact on Matt. And his wife, Fran, jsut happens to meet with me every week for Bible study and prayer. The are parents of 3 boys, and grandparents of soon-to-be 6 grandchildren. They are grandparent figures to our kids and like extended family to us. Matt wanted to honor Mr. Tom for the godly example he has been in his life.
Jeremiah
Our son's biological mother - who carried him for nine months, loved him, still loves him, and desires to be a part of his life - named him Jeremiah. As with Marnina, we chose to keep part of her past as part of her present when we named her Marnina Yongwen. Jeremiah is one more thing that our son's first mom gave to him. It was an honor for us to keep it as part of his full name.
We talked with Miss L. about naming her son Elijah Thomas Jeremiah and her response was "that's a great name...a strong name" and gave it her blessing.
So, here is our son......Elijah Thomas Jeremiah
Back in March of 2009, we decided that we were ready to adopt another child. After a lot of prayer and research, we felt the Lord leading us to adopt a newborn from here in the United States. (Our 3.5 year old daughter was adopted from China, if you didn't already know.)
We applied with a local adoption agency on Monday, March 16th. On Thursday, we received a phone call asking if we were open to adopt an 8-month old boy that a mom was preparing to relinquish. We said yes and put together a profile book of our family over the weekend to show the mom. She chose us, and we were told to expect Little Z. to be placed in our home in about 10 days. But the mom stopped showing up to meetings with the social worker and we never heard from her again. We still pray that Little Z. is doing well and is loved.
All of our classes and paperwork were completed by the end of September, but over the course of a few months, we started to feel uneasy about continuing to use our agency. We met with them on October 12th and dissolved our contract with them.
Not knowing what direction to take, we prayed and felt led to apply with another adoption agency in our state, but several hours away. We attended the informational meeting in October of 2009, decided we really liked them and officially applied.
In January, the director of our former agency called and said that there was a mom due in March with a baby boy. They only had one family to show her and she wanted to see more options. Our hesitation was that if we were matched with this mom, we would be signed back up with the old agency - which is something we did not want to do. We said to each other that the only way we'd be able to be shown is that if all our adoption expenses wouldn't be due until the baby went home with us (which is an unheard of scenario). But the old agency called to check on our decision a few days later and offered the very thing we were thinking of asking! Wow! God had completely smoothed the road for us to be shown to this mom and our answer was clear. So, we arranged things with our new agency to be placed on hold while we were shown to this mom with the former agency. We took a trip to Disney World during this time and on February 8th, 2010 found out that the mom chose another family. Oh well, we were faithful to follow where God led us and that was all that mattered.
We proceeded to complete our paperwork and interviews with the new agency and just had one more step to be "officially waiting" for a baby. We had a meeting scheduled with the agency's director on Tuesday, February 16th. After driving about 1 of the 3.5 hour trip, the phone rang and our meeting was canceled. It was frustrating, especially after arranging babysitting and vacation time from work. Later that day, we found out that a family who had adopted a little boy 3 months prior through our new agency had a tragedy. Their little boy did not survive liver transplant surgery and that was why our meeting was canceled. Our little meeting seemed so insignificant that we decided to wait until Monday the 22nd to call back and reschedule. Little did we know that it was all part of God's plan.
.....because the phone rang at 6:40am on Sunday morning the 21st of February.
It was the director of our former adoption agency. The first words out of her mouth were "I'm in a pickle." She proceeded to tell us that the mom, who was shown our profile book while we were in Disney World, had her baby a couple of hours ago and the family she chose has backed out. We were her second choice - were we still interested? I smacked Matt to wake him up and the director was on hold while I filled him in on the details. We said yes. Twenty minutes later, the director calls back to say that the mom has accepted what happened and wants to place her son with us. I got to talk with the mom on the phone for a few minutes and she was saying that God must have already chosen us to be the baby's parents. She wanted us to come by the hospital and meet her and see the baby. She told me that at 4:10am she thought she was in labor and asked a friend to drive her to the hospital. The baby was born at 4:43am while her friend was still parking the car! She was 38 weeks along and delivered in triage.
Bay Boy was born February 21, 2010 at 4:43am weighing in at 7lb 12oz and was 19.5" long.
We arrived at the hospital just 12 hours after received the phone call that morning. We met Miss L. and her baby boy. Miss L. is beautiful and such a strong woman. It was awkward at first, I won't lie. I mean, what do you say to the woman who is allowing you to raise her child as your own? And what do you say to the family you're giving a piece of yourself to? Let's just say there were a few tears. But after just a few short minutes, our conversation just flowed and it was like we had known each other for a long time. It was such a sweet time to share our past, our present, and our hopes & dreams for the future. We talked about names and all agreed on Elijah Thomas Jeremiah. (I'll write a separate blog post ot address the meaning of his name.)
It was very surreal to hold that precious bundle in my arms that night - unbelievable, really. Everything happened so fast that it really hadn't sunk in what was going on.
Miss L. was discharged on Monday and we were allowed to visit Elijah in the hospital prior to him being discharged on Tuesday. After scrubbing up, we were escorted into a back room of the hospital nursery. A few minutes later the nurses wheeled in the baby cart, handed Elijah to me, and then handed me a bottle saying it was time to feed him. So, there I was sitting in a hospital nursery feeding my newborn son - one of many things I never thought I would have the opportunity to experience.
We got to change him into his "going home" outfit, buckle him in to his car seat and walk with him out of the hospital.
We decided to have Elijah stay with an interim care family during the 7 days that Miss L. had to change her mind. As much as we longed to take him home with us, it was the best decision in order for us to get our home ready, prepare Marnina to be a big sister, and keep a bit of emotional distance during those 7 days. We did get to visit him and Marnina saw him for the first time on Saturday the 27th. She said "he's a little cute" and then asked "am I a big sister now?" She was insistent that she feed him all by herself and sing to him. We know the change from being an only child to sharing the spotlight will be a challenge for her, but she will be a great big sister. And yes, Matt did get a chance to hold him in all of this, too!
