Happy Mother's Day

I had an amazing Mother's Day. Maybe it was the homemade potato chips Stan made, in imitation of some we had at a restaurant while we were out of town or maybe it was the absolutely scrumptious chocolates, handmade by a friend of ours from church who is a chocolatier. However, I don't actually think it was any of those things.

This little precious life, hand delivered to me, by our Awesome God, just in time for Mother's Day is most definitely the reason.

We are so excited about adding this little baby boy to our family. He is a joy and it is a most high privilege that God is allowing us to raise him up. We will do everything we can to train him up in the way he should go and we pray that when he is a man that he will bring glory and honor to the One True God who has given Him a chance at life.

If you have been following our story, I apologize for taking so long to fill you in on the details of the adoption. It all happened so unbelievably fast. One day I was asking you to pray that God would, in His timing, send us the right baby - the next I was on a plane!

When we decided to move forward with the adoption, we used an adoption attorney. He was able to handle every detail, from contact with the birth mom to our travel plans. He worked with an attorney in the state we adopted from. She had been in contact with our baby's birth mom since she decided to place him for adoption back in March. He was born on April 18th. On the 22nd we got the medical report and our attorney asked us if we would like to be considered by the birth mom for this baby. As you know, we had decided that God would be the one to choose our baby - from race and gender, to health issues - therefore, we did not have to look hard at the report to know that this little guy was ours, if God allowed.

The birth mom had already looked at family profiles from her state and had not made a decision. She received our profile on the evening of the 23rd. She decided very quickly that he should be part of our family. As believers, we know that actually God decided. He put so many things in place for this to happen, so many qualities in our family letter that she was looking for. She even gave the baby the same name as my husband - after her grandfather. We kept it as his middle name.

On Monday, the 26th, we found out that she had picked us and that the doctor was more than ready to release the baby from the hospital. He was to be released on the 27th, whether we were there or not. Stan was out of town and could not get home immediately, so at 5:00 am on the 27th, I was on a flight, car seat in tow, to pick up our baby boy.

I will probably write more later about the way I felt and what was going through my head during all of this, but I know some of you have been waiting for details, so I am trying to get it out and I will expound as time allows.

I arrived at the hospital about 3:00 pm on the 27th. My first glimpse of our baby was amazing. He was so tiny, with huge dark blue eyes that just fixed on your face when you spoke to him. It was so obvious that someone had been spending lots of time talking to him. I found out later that his birth mom had been the one to do that. I was very relieved at that, because I had been tortured with thoughts of him lying in a hospital crib all alone except for feedings. That was not the case at all.

I spent a few hours getting the reports from the doctors and talking to the nurses about his likes and dislikes. I fed him a couple of bottles, changed his diaper a few times, and realized that it is kind of like riding a bike....it all comes back to you. Then, about 8:00, I left the hospital, without the baby, so that "S" could come up and say good-bye to him. She did, and about 10:30 the attorney brought him to me at my hotel.

I spent the first night with him, snuggled up in the big King sized bed. He loved being wrapped in his "miracle" blanket and he snoozed peacefully while I stared at him. Every three hours he began to wiggle and grunt and I popped a bottle in his mouth. He never cried, he never seemed discontent at all. It was a beautiful night.

I have to admit that I was a bit concerned about the lack of sleep. I am one that needs a lot of rest and every time I have a baby I feel like there are hormones that give a new mom the energy she needs to sleep in three hour increments. However, since I can't nurse this baby (the mere thought breaks my heart), I was afraid I would not get that rush. As it turns out, God is the one who provides the rush, not hormones, because He has provided it to me in abundance. I haven't slept a stretch longer than 2 1/2 hours in two weeks now and I truly feel fine! My house is a mess, my laundry is behind, and school is merely a nice thought....but, that is because all of us just sit around and stare at this new bundle of joy that God has blessed us with.

Anyway, Stan arrived the next afternoon, and instantly fell in love as well. We spent the next week waiting for our travel confirmation and bonding with our new baby. We missed our other kids like crazy, but we definitely needed the time together, just the three of us.

Adoption is a beautiful thing. God, in all of His amazing Sovereignty knits families together as surely as He creates babies in the womb. He places the lonely in families and He provides fathers for the fatherless. We serve an amazing and an awesome God!

Thanks for following our journey. There is more to come.