We got one family member out of the hospital this week and put another one back in.
Our baby girl is at home, doing well and having fun keeping me up at night. Aunt L is being super helpful and is impressed with how much a sweet baby can go to the bathroom.
R is back in the hospital as of last night. We are waiting to figure out the underlying cause and appreciate everyone's prayers and offers of help.
Thankfully, we're at least all in the same city now.
I don't have a solid nick name for the new family member, so far I've been using squirmy and L has come up with poopzilla.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Happy Valentine's Day
Late Wednesday night I got on the elevator from the 5th floor and hit the button to go to the lobby so I could go home. The elevator doors opened, I exited and starting walking down the hall. Two ladies called out from the elevator I had just exited, m'am, did you want to go to the lobby? This is the fourth floor. Oh, yes. I wandered back onto the elevator and then actually exited in the lobby.
While the past week can be summed up in two short sentences, I will try to give those (because they are important) first and then over time fill in more details.
1. R and I are now parents of a baby girl.
2. R no longer has an appendix.
Tuesday after lunch R sent me a message that our social worker had a question about our openness. We thought this meant our profile might be shown this month. R called her back after his afternoon meetings around 4 pm. Then, he merged me into the call. We had been chosen by a birth mom! And she was at 38 weeks. And scheduled to deliver on Sunday (today, the 19th). And it was a baby girl. And wanted to meet us on Friday (the 17th).
In shock and elated, R got in the car with coworkers to head to Orlando to get on a plane to New Jersey for a work trip. I went to MMD's house to give her the good news and called my sisters on the way.
<We told a few, very few, people about our news. I'd like to interject that because of three weeks ago, we didn't want to get everyone's hope up until paperwork was done.>
After spoiling MMD and husband's start to their Valentine's dinner, I went to ALM's house to share with her. While there ALM took a phone call from her husband and she suddenly yelled, She's in labor?!?
Two hours after finding out we had been matched again, our birth mom went into labor. I hadn't been paying attention to my phone - I had missed calls from our social worker and R. R had to call ALM's husband to call ALM to find me. When I got to talk to R, he had boarded the plane. He told the stewardess at the back of the plane to please call the front and ask them not to shut the door because he and his wife were adopting and he birth mom had gone into labor and he needed off the plane. By the time R got to the front of plane, after waiting for lots of middle schoolers to get seated, a stewardess and a doctor (who had been sitting in first class) were waiting for him.
Sir, are you the father?
Um, yes.
Is your wife still back there?
I think there has been a misunderstanding....
The doctor returned, gladly, to first class after R explained that no one on the plane was in labor. R called me and said I got off the plane (yay for my husband being a Friend's fan)
MMD and her very understanding husband drove me to Orlando to pick up R from the airport. Their Valentine diner ended up being Sonic, sharing it with me in the back seat.
ALM and her very understanding husband who had gotten them sitters so they could go out, went shopping for little girl outfits.
When we arrived home, feeling very loved by our friends, R's stomach ache had gotten worse and he tried to rest while I packed for a trip to the west coast of the state. We were planning on driving across to see the birth mother and baby girl first thing Wednesday morning.
Okay. That was Valentine's Day.
While the past week can be summed up in two short sentences, I will try to give those (because they are important) first and then over time fill in more details.
1. R and I are now parents of a baby girl.
2. R no longer has an appendix.
Tuesday after lunch R sent me a message that our social worker had a question about our openness. We thought this meant our profile might be shown this month. R called her back after his afternoon meetings around 4 pm. Then, he merged me into the call. We had been chosen by a birth mom! And she was at 38 weeks. And scheduled to deliver on Sunday (today, the 19th). And it was a baby girl. And wanted to meet us on Friday (the 17th).
In shock and elated, R got in the car with coworkers to head to Orlando to get on a plane to New Jersey for a work trip. I went to MMD's house to give her the good news and called my sisters on the way.
<We told a few, very few, people about our news. I'd like to interject that because of three weeks ago, we didn't want to get everyone's hope up until paperwork was done.>
After spoiling MMD and husband's start to their Valentine's dinner, I went to ALM's house to share with her. While there ALM took a phone call from her husband and she suddenly yelled, She's in labor?!?
Two hours after finding out we had been matched again, our birth mom went into labor. I hadn't been paying attention to my phone - I had missed calls from our social worker and R. R had to call ALM's husband to call ALM to find me. When I got to talk to R, he had boarded the plane. He told the stewardess at the back of the plane to please call the front and ask them not to shut the door because he and his wife were adopting and he birth mom had gone into labor and he needed off the plane. By the time R got to the front of plane, after waiting for lots of middle schoolers to get seated, a stewardess and a doctor (who had been sitting in first class) were waiting for him.
Sir, are you the father?
Um, yes.
Is your wife still back there?
I think there has been a misunderstanding....
The doctor returned, gladly, to first class after R explained that no one on the plane was in labor. R called me and said I got off the plane (yay for my husband being a Friend's fan)
MMD and her very understanding husband drove me to Orlando to pick up R from the airport. Their Valentine diner ended up being Sonic, sharing it with me in the back seat.
ALM and her very understanding husband who had gotten them sitters so they could go out, went shopping for little girl outfits.
When we arrived home, feeling very loved by our friends, R's stomach ache had gotten worse and he tried to rest while I packed for a trip to the west coast of the state. We were planning on driving across to see the birth mother and baby girl first thing Wednesday morning.
Okay. That was Valentine's Day.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Smiles from this Week
One of my third graders told our small group to be nice to me “because my heart is broken” and then she explained about the adoption not completing.
Of course this prompted questions from the group (of third and fourth grade girls) such as:
“why can’t you get pregnant?”
me: we can’t, it’s medically impossible.
“can’t you get shots or something? ”
“why is it impossible?”
me: that’s a long story.
“if you get pregnant now, would you get to keep the baby?”
“don’t ask her so many questions! - she might cry”
me: yes, we would get to keep the baby. Let’s get back to our memory verses….
ALM this is for you:
Today at work I was walking to a meeting with one of my favorite coworkers (insert image of a slightly younger Granny here; actually this lovely woman is a mother of 12 and grandmother to many) and I asked her if she had her new phone.
She patted her chest and replied “yes. In the bust we trust.”
Of course this prompted questions from the group (of third and fourth grade girls) such as:
“why can’t you get pregnant?”
me: we can’t, it’s medically impossible.
“can’t you get shots or something? ”
“why is it impossible?”
me: that’s a long story.
“if you get pregnant now, would you get to keep the baby?”
“don’t ask her so many questions! - she might cry”
me: yes, we would get to keep the baby. Let’s get back to our memory verses….
ALM this is for you:
Today at work I was walking to a meeting with one of my favorite coworkers (insert image of a slightly younger Granny here; actually this lovely woman is a mother of 12 and grandmother to many) and I asked her if she had her new phone.
She patted her chest and replied “yes. In the bust we trust.”
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Washington DC Trip
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| Washington Monument |
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| Lincoln Monument |
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| Capitol Building |
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| Smithsonian Air and Space Museum |
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| Smithsonian Museum of Natural History |
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| Smithsonian Museum of Natural History |
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| Part of the Grant statues |
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| Capitol Dome at Night |
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| War Eagle. Toomer's Oak at the Capitol |
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| U.S. Supreme Court Building |
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| Library of Congress |
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| Inside Atrium of the Library |
Sunday, February 5, 2012
adoption update
I think R said it best when he compared the sharing of our excitement and joy of this adoption to buying our friends and family tickets on the maiden voyage of the Titanic.
Thank you for understanding that we didn't really want to talk this week.
And thank you for the supportive messages, cards, and thoughtful presents.
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| The H family knows us well |
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| From my sweet friend ALM |
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| The H family adding a bit of beauty to our dark home this week |
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| Homemade bread (that we immediately started eating) from the W family |
We received the news that our birth mother had decided to parent on Monday. Our social worker and the pregnancy counselor visited our house to let us know. Our birth mother was discharged from the hospital on Monday.
We have received several questions this week about what is next and for the most part our answer to everything is "We don't know" (this includes questions like, what do you want to eat for dinner?). However, there are several questions we received more than once and have an answer to:
-We are going to continue to pursue parenting through adoption.
-We will not have to re-pay adoption costs that have been paid.
-I like dark chocolate. R likes ice cream.
-Our families still wanted to come visit but we asked them to wait and we left town.
From Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring
"'Well if that isn't a plague and a nuisance!' said Pippin. The news: no fire, and a move again by night, had been broken to him, as soon as he woke in the late afternoon. 'All because of a pack of crows! I had looked forward to a real good meal tonight: something hot.'
'Well, you can go on looking forward,' said Gandalf. 'There may be many unexpected feasts ahead for you."
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