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.
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