Happy Wednesday

I have come to the realization that if I am going to continue reading blogs, that I should post my own!

Wednesday is a fun day for us....so my husband is staying at home with M. He LOVES it, and I LOVE seeing the relationship that the two of them are building. They are totally enamored with each other! I get to stay home on Wednesday afternoon (my half day of work) and my husband (T) works...and also on Tuesday nights. M and I ate some lunch (yup, she's eating solids, but more on that later!) and then a mid day bath (oh to be six months old!) and now she's down for her nap.

This girl can sleep!!!! She takes two solid naps a day, with her afternoon nap usually lasting 3-4 hours. Oh, and did I mention that she's been sleeping through the night since she was 3 months old? Obviously, this has nothing to do with us!!!!

Well, I think I might go take a siesta of my own......

I have a 6 month old!

I just wanted anyone out there (anyone, anyone??) to know that we've made it through half of the first year. Ok, not only have we made it, but we are LOVING being parents! I am still following all of your blogs on my blackberry, and hopefully, SOMEDAY, I will start commenting again. Contemplating blogging......we'll see. =)

The rest of that week

Ok, so let me say that from Tuesday on, my head was constantly spinning and I was also in a pretty constant state of tears. Could this really really be happening? Could we maybe be getting a baby?

We found out pretty quickly that the birth mom was living with a family who she had known for years. Without getting into all the details, she was basically out on the streets and this family took her in, was loving on her, and the mom in this family agreed to help the birth mom find a family for the baby after the birth mom decided to place the baby for adoption.

We also found out that there were several other couples that had found out about the original email and were also interested in adopting the baby. *Gulp*

So, over the course of the next several days, the mom figure in this family interviewed each of the prospective families multiple times. She talked with my husband, she talked with me. We poured out our hearts to this person that we didn't know at all and told her our life story. She heard everything and went through this process with each of the other families and then passed along the information to the birth mom. We quickly put together a sort of biography on us with lots of pictures of us, our house, our families, and of course, our dogs. This process went on from Wednesday-Friday. We were told that we would get a phone call on Friday regardless of the decision....so we went through the longest 24 hours in our lives from Thursday-Friday (ok, we've had a lot of long 24 hour periods since then, but that was the longest one up to that point!) I cried. A LOT.

So, right at 1200 on Friday, she called. She talked about how she had interviewed each of the families and had spent a lot of time in prayer with others and a lot of discussion with the birth mom. All during this time, I was just thinking...just tell us!!!!---as my heart was sinking. In my heart of hearts, I KNEW it was us, but at the same time, my heart was just sinking. Probably IF has done that to me...always preparing for the worst. Anyway, after that, she said "Congratulations mommy and daddy!" And we just sobbed. I can't even tell you the level of emotion experienced on that day. It was completely amazing.

As an aside, the older woman later told me that as soon as she heard my voice on the phone the first time, God told her that we were it. And she had a complete sense of peace. And she basically didn't hear anything else either of us said in our 2+ hour interviews, because she knew she was done. How incredibly cool is that?

Ok, enough for today. Next up, hearing the gender and meeting the birth mom for the first time.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

And...our peanut loves to eat! I'll have to post more pictures soon. I'm trying to improve my blogging..and tell this entire story! =)

November 10th, 2009

Or, otherwise entitled, the day our lives changed forever.

Ok, so to backtrack a little, I was in the midst of an IUI cycle. Injecting a little Follistim, starting to feel the hormonal overload. Like, really bad. I was an emotional wreck. I was feeling sorry for myself, crying a lot, and probably getting pretty close to needing a third party to talk to and a little celexa. I think I hit rock bottom on November the 9th. I was shopping in Target for a baby gift for a friend's upcoming shower, and just started crying. In the middle of Target. It was lovely. I think I hid out for ten minutes in the workout clothes area (interestingly enough, the emptiest area in Target) and tried to stop crying. I couldn't handle looking at baby clothes, baby gear, baby this and that. It was just too much.

I spent a lot of that day in quiet reflection. I didn't have to work, so luckily, I had the luxury of being able to do that. I had a monitoring appointment later that day, and my ovaries were responding just as slowly as usual. Even better. Even better.

Fast forward to Tuesday. November 10th. These days, I have been carrying my cell phone with me at work, even though that is something that I typically do not do. You know, phone calls from the lab, RE, etc...can not be missed! Well, at about 9:30, I got a text message from my husband. *URGENT--call me right now*. So, I'm thinking to myself, who died? How can this week get any better?

So, I called him back. He asked me to sit down. He told me he just got off the phone with his dad--and his dad just got an email from one of the pastor's of their church. The email stated that there was a young pregnant woman who was looking to place her unborn baby for adoption. Did he (my husband's dad) know of anyone who would be interested? My husband's dad is a deacon in their church, and this email went out to all of the deacons.

The world stopped.

My husband asked if we would be interested.

Without hesitation.

Yes!

And so the story began.

From a day of despair to a day of realizing that there was a plan in all of this crazy mess.

to be continued...

Introducing

Our little peanut. Our beautiful girl was born on 2.9.10 via c-section after failure to progress. She weighed 6#13oz, was 20.25 inches long, and as you can see, has a full head of black hair!

We're totally in love. The adoption process went well, though with its emotional hiccups. At this point, I'm trying to figure out what to do with this blog...obviously, I'm not at all thinking about ttc right now, so thoughts and ideas would be appreciated. I do think I want to continue blogging, if little miss M lets me! =)

A PSA to well-meaning friends and family

*Ok, we're working on getting the whole baby story out, but life has been CRAZY around here! The due date is this Thursday, no baby yet!*

And now onto the PSA:

1. Please don't tell me: " Well, now that you are adopting, you'll get pregnant in no time. I know _____ who was trying to get pregnant for years, and then they adopted, and *poof* she was pregnant just like that!"

2. Never make the comment to me, however well-meaning it may be, " Well, I hope that you can experience having one of your own someday."

My response:
1. Hey, it would be great if we got pregnant. However, we aren't even thinking about that right now, and we're beyond thrilled that we are HAVING A BABY. Oh, and we have several medical diagnoses that make it really difficult for us to get pregnant. So, thanks for discounting that and basically saying that if we stop thinking about it, we will get preggers.

2 . I am experiencing having one of my own. She is my own.

PEOPLE SOMETIMES!

why there have been no posts since Monday Nov. 9th.

Because Tuesday, November 10th, our lives changed forever.

Let's backtrack to Monday November 9th. I was in the midst of my injectible cycle, ready to try some acupuncture. Bring it on. However, my mood was getting lower and lower as the day went on. I had to shop for a baby shower gift for a friend. I cried the whole time I was in the baby store. It had been enough. I had reached a new level of sad. Life was bad.

Tuesday, Nov 10th. Unexpected text from my husband. "Call me back, NOW." That was the text. Nothing more. I called him right back, and the next thing he said has changed our lives forever.....

"I got a phone call, and there is an email that there is a young woman that is looking to place her yet to be born baby for adoption. Are we interested?"

Ummm, yeah. No second thoughts. Seriously? Seriously?!?!?!

Long story short, the whole week was a crazy series of events that ended up in the birth mom picking us. Someday, I will post the whole story, because all of it is amazing. Truly amazing. And totally all God.

So. I'm going to be a mom in about 2 weeks! She's 37 and 6 days today. We've met the birth mom. We've been scrambling to prepare for a baby for the last 2 months. It's been the shortest pregnancy ever!

I am the happiest and the most excited that I have ever been. We are full of anticipation and expectation. Life is good.

Oh, and completing a homestudy in less than one month? We are rock stars. That's all I'm going to say.

I hope to post more often now. Maybe. Obviously, the tone of this blog is different, but I hope some continue to read, because this is a beautiful story.

And we're not pregnant. I could care less. =)

And we're having a girl!!