Our relaxing weekend

We've had a great, relaxing weekend at home with Georgia. It seems as though she is changing every day. Her eyes have changed...they definitely look blue now and she's starting to look at us more and stick out her tongue and make faces. She is a whole 12 days old today and she continues to be the best baby! She has been sleeping 4-5 hours at a time and wakes up very hungry. She will eat and be up for an hour to two and then she's asleep again for another 4-5 hours. Friday night she ate at about 11:45 and went to sleep by about 12:45. She didn't wake up to eat until 6:45 Saturday morning! Shelby and I were pleasantly surprised when we woke up to her "grunts" and it was light outside! Shelby even asked worriedly, "Do you think she cried in the middle of the night and we just didn't hear her?" I assured him that with her sleeping in her bassinet literally a few inches away I would have heard her! Needless to say she was starving at 6:45...Shelby said he heard her tummy growling!

We just love this precious baby and her precious birth mother, who chose life for Georgia and has allowed us to be her parents! God is so good!

A week ago today!

One week ago today we were humbled that Georgia's birth mother signed the relinquishment papers and allowed us to parent her newborn. That morning we got up early and were not in good shape. We knew it was probably the most important day of our lives, to date, and we were nervous. We also knew that Georgia's birth mother had been emotional the night before and probably was that morning as well. We cried A LOT that morning in the hotel room and we prayed over the precious baby girl that we had strapped in the carseat. Was this going to be the last car ride we would take with her or the first of many? The verses I clung to as we were driving to meet to sign papers that morning were "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with THANKSGIVING, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:6-7

We cannot imagine the emotion Georgia's birth mother felt that day or has felt since. We love her for the selfless, courageous sacrifice she made and for who she is...she gave life to little Georgia Claire! I am SO very thankful that there are precious birth mothers out there that DO decide to place their babies for adoption...without her selfless decision, we might not be able to have a family! We love you!

We are one week into our new life and we could not be happier. Thank you Lord for giving us this perfect and precious life!

I debated if I should post this on the blog or not, but decided I would. Luke, Georgia's oldest cousin, spent a little time with us today. He is always saying the most hilarious things. Today is Andy's & Kathy's 15 year wedding anniversary. Luke called me late this afternoon and said, "Hey BB, can I come to your house tonight while my mom and dad go on a date and SMOOCH?!" I couldn't help but laugh out loud...needless to say, he came over a short while later.

While Luke was with us tonight he kept asking me all kinds of questions about Georgia-when she was going to get teeth, when she was going to crawl, he swore to me that she talked today, and then he asked about her umbilical cord. I was changing her diaper and he walks in the room and is just about the right height of the changing table. I was putting lotion on her tummy when he spotted her umbilical cord. He said, "She still has that belly button thing? When is it going to fall off? YUCK! It looks like leftover food." WHERE does he come up with these things?! I just love you, Luke.

Our night in the hotel...a week ago today.

A week ago today, little Georgia Claire and her birth mother were discharged from the hospital. But because it had only been a little over 24 hours since her birth, we went to a hotel room for the night with Georgia. In the state of Texas a birth mother has 48 hours before she can sign relinquishment papers. We knew that going in, but didn't realize how incredibly hard it would be to wait. We fell in love with Georgia Claire that night in the room...it's a night we will never forget. We bonded and became a family that night. However, we couldn't help but wonder if we were just babysitting for the night. After all, it was still possible that Georgia's birth mother could change her mind and decide to parent herself, and our caseworker continued to encourage us to guard our hearts as much as possible. I didn't sleep much that night...instead I prayed A LOT.

Quality Peach

Dad had the idea to weigh Georgia on the scales this morning at the farm. So, we lined one of the peach lids with her blanket and laid her on the scales. She's a whopping 7.31 pounds folks! So that means in 8 days she has gained about 7 ounces! YAY! I knew her cheeks were looking fatter...that girl loves to eat! The box lid says "Quality Peaches"...she is DEFINITELY a "quality peach" in our book!

Looks like I need to get busy!

Ahhh...I just LOVE summer food! Mom & Dad stopped by this morning with a dozen ears of fresh sweet corn from their garden and beautiful homegrown tomatoes! I'm going to blanch these ears of corn so we can have it all through the year and I know when Georgia starts eating she will love chewing on the cob! We used to do that when I was little...country, I know, but it feels good to those little swollen gums!

Happy Birthday, Mary Katherine!

Today is Mary Katherine's 4th birthday and she is just a little doll. Georgia Claire and I went to the farm to have donuts with her this morning and to give her our gift. Instead of a party this year, Andy & Kathy are taking her to Build-a-Bear and we all gave her money to buy outfits for her bear, a life-size baby doll, and whatever else she wants! I can't help but think that the arrival of Georgia Claire might have spurred the decision to get a larger doll, one that's more 'real'. She is a little mama already and LOVES to have Georgia in her lap. Father's Day night we were at Mom & Dad's for supper and she sat beside me on the couch and I layed Georgia on a big pillow on her lap. She was as happy as a little lark! Luke came through and got an ice cream on a stick and when I asked her if she would like to get one and go outside with Luke she told me no, that she was happy right where she was! "You mean holding Georgia is even better than eating ice cream?!" I asked her...to which she replied, "Oh yes, BB, Georgia is WAY better than ice cream!" I want Georgia to stay little, but I also cannot wait to see how she will interact with her cousins. Mary Katherine is all girl, but LOVES to go to the farm and ride on the tractors, too! Three of the pictures on this post are from Christmas tree season last year. She LOVES riding on the tractor, especially when PawPaw or Shelby drives, but often times the lull of the tractor would make her fall asleep...even standing up! Happy Birthday, Mary Katherine! I love you so much and cannot wait for you to be best buddies with Georgia Claire!

So I think it just hit me...

I'm sometimes a little slow, but I think it just hit me...a week after Georgia's birth, that I am a mom! As Georgia and I settle into this routine, it's becoming more and more real that this precious baby girl is mine to raise and grow in the ways of the Lord. What an AWESOME responsibility but also an AWESOME privilege! Psalm 126:3 says, "The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy". That is EXACTLY the way we feel! He has done GREAT & MIGHTY things in our lives and we give HIM all the praise and honor and glory! In just 6 months we went from talking about adoption to having Georgia Claire in our home with us! WOW! Thank you, Lord...you heard our cries and answered our prayers.

Summer is here...

We ate a Father's Day meal at my parents' home last night...a summer meal at its finest! Dad asked me what I was doing and I said I HAD to have a picture of the beautiful plate of food! I know its random...but I LOVE LOVE LOVE the food we get in the summer...most of this came from my parents' garden-having a farming Dad has its privileges folks!

Why Georgia?

I've had many people ask how we came up with the name...why Georgia? Although we are big fans of John Mayer, it is not because of his song! My grandfather (my Dad's dad who I never had the privilege of meeting) was George Alvis. I had always considered the name George for a boy, if we had one. I bought the book, The Baby Name Wizard, back in January when we started the adoption process. Almost every day I would look at names, marking the ones I liked. If you have ever been to our home you know I love antiques. My whole house is full of antiques, and I absolutely LOVE decorating with antiques. In this book there was a section titled Antique Charm...I found that I marked more names in this section than any other. After meeting Georgia's birth mother and finding out it was a girl, we narrowed our search down to two names.

I went to lunch with Georgia's birth mother, her boyfriend, and her mom when I went to her final ultrasound in May. During our conversation she asked me if I had thought of any names. I told them the first name we were considering and they didn't seem like they liked it too much and then I told them the second name, Georgia Claire, and they REALLY liked it. That's when I found out that Georgia's biological great-great grandfather's name was GEORGE! I thought it would be special to both families to use the name, just in feminine form! To me it was yet another way that I felt like God was bonding our families.

On our way home on Friday, June 19th, I received a text from Georgia's birth mother's mom...or Georgia's biological grandmother. She said that she had just talked to her granny Alma (who was married to George). She had called to check on them and told them that June 17th, Georgia's birthday, would have been her and George's 59th wedding anniversary! And again, I am amazed at God's hand in all of this.

Happy FIRST Father's Day, Shelby!

My wonderful husband is a natural at this whole fatherhood thing. He can swaddle Georgia Claire (or make her into a baby burrito, as I like to call it) better than anyone! I am so blessed to have been married to him for 10 years and to have gone on this long journey with him. Over five years ago we decided we wanted to start a family and never dreamed his first Father's Day would be celebrated in 2009! BUT, looking back, we know we are closer to each other and our Heavenly Father because of the struggles we have been through. Georgia Claire was worth every bit of heartache that we went through!

The call that changed our life...

On Wednesday morning, June 17th, at 7:00 my phone rang and I looked at it and saw the name of our baby's birth mother...my heart jumped out of my chest! I said hello and she said simply, "It's time!" I really don't know what I said after that, something like "Are you serious?!" or "Really?" She sounded so good and I suddenly realized that I had not packed a bag for us and Shelby was on his way to work! I hung up the phone and called Shelby. He answered...as I ran into the kitchen, I realized he was still home, and I told him, "We're having a baby today!" His eyes were as big as saucers and he immediately started taking his boots off! We left town about 45 minutes later and started out on our 3.5 hour journey. We prayed for a smooth, easy delivery for Georgia's birth mom and it was. I'm fuzzy about the details but she dilated really quickly and at 10:00 AM, after about 15 minutes of pushing, little Georgia Claire was born...all 6 lbs, 14 oz. of her!

We were so very thankful that it happened quickly. We didn't arrive until a little after 11:30 and got to see her for the first time around noon. Later that evening Shelby and I were able to spend a couple hours with Georgia's birth mother and her boyfriend...two hours we will cherish for a very long time!

The next day the hospital discharged Georgia and her birth mother at about 11:45 and we went back to our hotel room for a night of taking care of this little baby! We prayed over her that night and the next morning, that God would bless her little life, whether it was going to be with us, or her birth mother. In the state of Texas, the birth mother has a 48 hour period that she can decide to parent, and that was very real to us that morning as we got ready to leave our hotel and drive to the chosen location to sign papers. Many tears were shed by Shelby and me, but we knew that God was going to be faithful. Georgia's birth mother was an angel that day. She even told me that she didn't want me to feel guilty...which I was feeling. It is so very difficult to see someone so sad who has just made you the happiest you have been in your whole life! There is no protocol written on how to handle these situations, but by the grace of God, we made it! These are definitely uncharted waters that we are in, but we have grown so much and have met this incredible family, one that Shelby and I both feel like are a part of our family now.

I've been meaning to start this since JANUARY!

So, I've been meaning to start a blog since January...when our adoption journey began, and here it is already June and we have our baby girl! Forgive me for this long first post, but I am going to try to catch everyone up on what has happened the last 6 months...it is AMAZING how God has worked in our lives and I want to shout it from the mountaintops to let everyone know how GOOD our God is! I'm going to start with last October...

October-December

After months of many medications, shots, surgery, and trips back and forth to Baylor Hospital in Dallas, we found out that I was not pregnant. We tried 3 attempts at artificial insemination and two attempts at In Vitro Fertilization, and we got the news that I was not pregnant. It was October 15th, 2008 and we were devastated and exhausted. Shelby took me to eat lunch at Pizza King, my favorite pizza place and I started feeling better. Family means the world to me and I told him after lunch that all I wanted to do was go home and take a nap and then go to my parents' house and eat my mom's chicken 'n dumplins...my comfort food. About an hour later my mom called and invited us for a family dinner of...chicken 'n dumplins, mashed potatoes, and homemade biscuits...YUM! It was like at that moment God was telling me that everything was going to be OK.

Throughout the next days and weeks Shelby and I started seriously talking about adoption. We had always said we would if we couldn't have biological children, but we wanted to make sure we had done everything we could do, and at this point we knew we had. We also spent those days and weeks praying and seeking God's will for our lives and our future family. We KNEW God wanted us to be parents.

January

On January 1st, we went to Fredericksburg, to see my sister Angie, her husband Joe, and our nephews Gabe & Will. We had a great time and while we were there we met up with a college friend and one of Shelby's roommates, Erik Lankford. Erik and his wife have recently adopted two adorable kids through the CPS route, and we began seriously thinking about doing the same. The thing that attracted us the most was the cost...the state would actually pay us to adopt. As bad as it sounds, it was tempting to us because we were literally out of money...all spent on infertility procedures and medications (the cost of those medications is RIDONCULOUS!) I can remember coming home and as I was searching adoption agencies on my blackberry I said to Shelby, "How will we ever choose?!" That was Sunday, January 4th.

On Wednesday, January 7th, we went to church and a dear friend of my family's, Faye King, approached me in the aisle. She said something like, I don't know if you are even ready for this information, but I have been waiting to tell you about this Christmas card I got from some old friends. She received their letter and our letter on the same day. In our letter we just informed family and friends about our decision to adopt and how excited we were about it. In her friends' letter they talked about their children...one of which is a caseworker at Generations Adoptions in Waco. She had a telephone number for her at home, so when I got home I called Faye and got the number and called and talked to the caseworker. I was really excited about what I heard and talked to Shelby about it...we called back the next day and got their last spot in their mandatory 8 hour training session on February 7th. We also went to orientation that month at the agency and knew afterwards that it was the one for us!

Here we are after our orientation...the beginning of our adoption journey! We KNEW when we left there that day that it was the agency for us!

February-March

We attended the 8 hour training on Saturday, February 7th and God opened our eyes and our hearts to Open Adoption. We had always said that we did NOT want to co-parent our child with the birthmother and we were afraid that she could take her baby back, even after he/she was placed in our home. We learned that those fears were not something to worry about and that the state of Texas is a very adoption-friendly state. We received a packet of all the requirements that we had to do and it came with a checklist! Anybody that knows me knows that I LOVE lists...I used to ask my mom to put my chores in list form so that I could mark them off when I finished! There was also the $15,000 flat rate that we had to come up with. Anybody that has checked into newborn adoptions knows that $15,000 is not much compared to other agencies, but our funds were DEPLETED people! We trusted that God would provide, and he did. Some friends of my inlaws graciously told us they would give us a $12,000 loan until we received the $12,150 adoption tax credit next year from the government! They didn't even know us, and yet they loved our story and Shelby's parents and were willing to help us out in this HUGE way! They are a HUGE part of our success! Thank you Lord-you have opened the doors WIDE OPEN for us to do this! During the next few weeks we worked on the MOUNDS of paperwork and all of the requirements, and getting our home ready for the dreaded home study. Our home study was Monday, March 16th and as it turns out, it was nothing! It went very well. We were on our way!

Here we are with our training materials after the 8 hour training session...SO EXCITED!

April

On April 3rd we got the news...we were approved and our profile was on the website for birth mothers to preview and copies of our letter and picture collage were at the agency for birthmothers who came into the office. Just TWO WEEKS LATER, on April 17th, we got a call that a birth mother had narrowed her search down to two couples...and we were one of them!!! WOW! JUST the day before I had a pity party...thinking that the reality of the situation was that it could be 6 months or even a year before someone chooses us! If nothing else, it gave me hope that someone was seriously considering us. The following weekend seemed like an eternity for us because our caseworker told us the birth mother would probably make her decision by Monday.

On Monday, April 20th, I got another call that she had picked US!!!!! Oh my goodness! She picked us! I was at school and got the news during 2nd period. Shelby was out in West Texas for work and when I called him to tell him the news I said "She picked us!" and all I could hear were the west Texas winds and then he yelled, "WHAT?!" And I yelled, "SHE PICKED US!!!" Then all I heard was silence...Shelby was in shock and so was I. I called my parents, my sisters & my brother-in-laws, and other family and friends. We were all overjoyed!

One week later, on Monday, April 27th, we met our baby's birth mother and her mother. We were so nervous and scared...would she like us? Could we convince her that we would be good parents? It was a good meeting...scary, but good. She is a beautiful young woman and we found out that the baby she was carrying, the baby that we would later adopt, was a girl! That was the beginning of an incredible relationship that we have now established with her and her mother, and her family.

May

The month of May was full of excitement...three baby showers, Shelby's 32nd birthday, school ending, Mine & Shelby's 10 year wedding anniversary and an ultrasound appointment with Georgia's birth mom. We ended the month with lunch on the 31st in Waco with Georgia's birth mom, her boyfriend, her mother, her aunt & her boyfriend, and her grandparents. It was a terrific lunch and WONDERFUL to finally get to meet more members of the family. Overall, it was a GREAT month!

June

June started with a last little getaway for Shelby and me to San Antonio. We had plans to go to Nashville, but the baby's due date was June 19th and we didn't want to risk being that far away if Georgia's birth mom went into labor early. SO, we chose San Antonio because it was relatively close by, in case she decided to come early. We even packed a bag and the carseat, just in case. We had a great time doing the San Antonio thing...touring the missions, boat ride through the River Walk and eating good mexican food, and came home without a baby.

The next few days were spent babysitting nieces Mary Katherine & Caroline and nephew Luke, and me nesting...on June 9th I was on my hands and knees scrubbing my tile floors in my kitchen and dining room! On Tuesday, I ran errands and tidied up the house, feeling like it could be anytime. Shelby & I again found ourselves at Pizza King (for one last time before Georgia came!) and finished up things around the house that night. Would it be soon? We sure felt like it would be...and we later found out from Georgia's birthmom that she felt it would be that night, as well.