It's A Boy!! ....the whole story

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!

On Tuesday, March 2nd, the interim care family brought him to the adoption agency. We arrived and signed lots of paperwork, after which - he officially became our son. We're still waiting for the adoption to be finalized by the state, but Elijah is now in our home and a forever part of our family. We couldn't be happier and are absolutely amazed at how God brought his little boy into our home!