Well as most reading this already know.... we are now the proud parents of a precious baby girl, Brooklynn Faith is the sweetest thing we have ever known. I will attempt ;) to keep this as brief as I can. I can't post any pictures of our pretty girl on the internet till all is final in court in June so I will wait till then (yes that is a long way off) to post those. We have taken SO many pictures and every visitor that has come over knows that I have a precious picture of them with her! I've had several people ask when I am going to update this blog cause they want to know the whole story of how her birth went. For so many privacy reasons for our birth family I am not going to go into much detail if any of them but I will tell our side and our feelings. So... here is our story of the best, scariest, happiest, most exciting time of our lives....
December 27th (the day before our birthmom was scheduled to be induced):
I was a NERVOUS wreck... my poor husband, he has dealt with me for the last 13 years through many emotional ups and downs. I can be quite the "emotional girl" when I want to be. But these last few days were the worst ;) As much as we had already began to bond with this baby over the last few months of getting to know our birthfamily, going to dr appointments with her, baby showers, decorating the room... we knew there was always the chance our birthmom would not sign the papers after the baby was born and follow through with her decision. Justin and I relied on faith through this that God wanted this baby to be ours but in the back of our minds this worry and fear was ALWAYS there on top of the normal worries: her health, being a good enough parents, having everything ready for her and us when we returned home. I spent this day returning Christmas gifts that were the wrong sizes, using gift cards from Christmas and showers to get what we needed, organizing the house for baby, packing our bags, washing her clothes and a little last minute nesting (of which was driving Justin nuts!). As I prepared for bed on the last night at our house before this new chapter I thanked God for this chance and I prayed he would give us patience for the coming days. I saw this quote and LOVE it... It pretty much sums this journey up I think!
We were going to take down the Christmas decorations before we made our trip the next morning. However, Justin had made the comment when he was decorating the house that when he took down the Christmas lights we would have a baby here so we didn't want to do that till she was here.... so we went to sleep that night or attempted to sleep and rest for our big day!
December 28 - our baby girl's BIRTHday!
We loaded up the Tahoe at 4 a.m. with our bags and babies bags, kissed Lucy (our dog) good bye, and headed down the road with lots of EXCITEMENT, NERVOUSNESS, and COFFEE in our system! My mom had come over the night before and left us with these....
They were so cute! FILLED with ALL sorts of goodies (my mom BOUGHT out Walgreens I think!) for the hospital. One was for us and one was for our birth mom. It was so thoughtful and creative of mom. We weren't able to have our family at the hospital and this was totally understandable considering the situation but it was sad to us too a little bit. This meant a lot my mom did this for us, almost made me feel like she was there with me when I would see all the treats she picked out for us. We both are very close to our parents, not having them by our side was hard but they were there for us all day long! Our families are very important to us and we had some very sweet phone calls and texts on our way to the hospital!
My sister sent us this picture as we arrived at the hospital... It meant a lot! This is my niece (our 1st little love) - she was so excited for us too!! Seems like just yesterday we were at the hospital waiting for HER to make her big debut! I never knew how precious a childs' love could be till I met my Abigail Grace and I couldn't wait to know that love with my own little girl!! Abby has a special bond with us and always will!
We arrived at the hospital and patiently (ha! not really - we were SO very impatient!) waited in the waiting room till 5:01 pm when we got the phone call from our birth moms' mom (she was in the room when she was born) that Brooklynn had arrived finally! I will never forget the words, "Do you want to hear your little girl?" I heard on my IPhone the most beautiful cry I had ever heard. I immediately was FLOODED with emotion. In front of people I hardly knew (our birth moms extended family, our AMAZING social worker from our agency, other families in the waiting room) I started bawling like I have never cried before. I looked over at Justin and with tears in my eyes said, "Our baby is crying, she is crying!!" He was a bit emotional too. I hung up the phone, hugged my husband tighter than I ever had and we both were giddy with excitement and SO very thankful she was here and okay! Our birth moms' father was so sweet and went right down to the gift shop to get us "Proud Mom and Proud Dad" pins and Pink Cigars. It was so thoughtful of him! It is an awkward moment to be with people you don't know all that well and to get a phone call hearing your baby crying before you see her... It truly made us feel so good that he made us feel so special by doing this small thing!
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| Literally two minutes after we became parents! |
We started trying to call family and friends and quickly let them know she was here... we had yet to see her but she was here and healthy! A sweet baby girl! We couldn't wait to meet her! Our family and friends had been texting, calling ALL day - they were dying to know what was happening all day (thank goodness we have unlimited texting ha! - I have no idea how many we sent or how many were sent to us in the course of three days! I know at one point I looked down and had 152 texts .... talk about feeling the love! ha!).
The moment we walked in the room and met our daughter for the first time she was about 8 minutes old probably. I will never forget walking down the hall to meet her - Justin making fun of me (if you know him you know he does this a lot! ha!) and both of us more nervous than ever ever before! I had no idea and to be honest I worried about how I would feel the moment I laid eyes on her. Would I feel the bond?? YES! I felt the bond the moment they put her in my arms. I am crying reliving this most special moment. It was surreal. No, she did not come from me, but nobody could have told me she wasn't mine. The moment I laid my eyes on her and our birthmom placed her in my arms, I knew I would LOVE her forever and ever. I knew the moment she looked up at me the reason we didn't have our own biological babies. It was because we were meant to be her parents. We are FIRM believers that God plans everything! We believe he planned long before we knew it for this baby girl to come into our lives on December 28, 2011. She was the most beautiful thing we had ever laid eyes on. I put her in Justins' arms and then the tears really started coming....
From the moment I met this man I knew he was made to be a daddy. I have always felt that if I can see him as a daddy I would be complete. I mean not to say I don't have lots I want to do in life :) I just knew that he was destined to be a daddy and my dream was to see that. The day we found out she was a girl I knew this would be his pride and joy. Justin loves his football and his baseball boys, but he is a sucker when it comes to sweet little girls! She already has her daddy wrapped around her finger! The moment he saw her he felt it too... It was crazy how quickly the "daddy protective nature" came out in him ;).
Our birthmom was healthy and so strong and we were very proud of her. Again for privacy reasons I am not going to talk much about them. I did give her a book of the most AMAZING stories from all of our loved ones... if you were one who sent me a note to paste in her book or if you wrote in her book, thank YOU! It meant a LOT to her! She read each one and loved them all. I gave her this James Avery necklace as a "LABOR of Love" gift after she gave birth. Turns out before Justin even knew I was buying this for her he actually bought me the exact same necklace... I have worn it every day since.
It is a mothers' heart necklace.. symbolized the love of a mother and her baby. I have and will always feel that our birth mom truly did love our baby first and most to do what she did for her. She felt strongly Brooklynn should be ours and for that I will forever and ever be grateful.
December 29: We basically spent this day getting to know our baby, rocking her, changing her and feeding her. We shared these duties with our birth family because they wanted time with her too. It was tough at times for us all, emotional, and we were trying to be patient. We would be staying at the hospital till at least 5 pm Friday night (the next night). Our birth mom can not sign papers till 48 hours after. So we would be staying there till then. The hospital was wonderful to us! They let Justin and I stay in the hospital right down the hall from our birth mom so that we could see Brooklynn a lot. The nurses came and checked on us and were so sweet and helpful. It helped a lot that they were so sweet and welcoming especially since we didn't have family and friends there. Our adoption agency couldn't have been better, their employees are so sweet and wonderful to both the birth family and us. We definitly got closer to them during the hospital stay. Not to mention how close Justin and I got, after almost 7 years of marriage, I have never felt closer to my husband than I did here. There were moments I was overcome with joy, there were moments I was scared to death and to have it all with my best friend who I knew loved me unconditionally and stood by my side meant the world. I think its a good thing in a way that we didn't have family and friends there, as much as we would have LOVED for them to be there .... we were able to lean on God and each other more and get to know our baby so well during this time.
December 30th: OUR GOTCHA DAY!
This day was a long day... Not going to go into to many details but after MUCH prayer, much thought, many tears and many hugs our birth mom signed the papers allowing Brooklynn to be ours. This was not an easy decision for her. It was harder than she thought it would be but in the end she knew that God wanted us to have this baby and I couldn't be more proud of her for decision. At about 6:15 pm that night she told us she was signing the papers. It is a bitter sweet moment, we were thrilled... this was a picture of us seeing our baby for the first time after papers were signed.... I have never felt closer to God than I did in the moments right before our brave birth mom signed the papers.... LOTS of people were praying for all involved and I could literally feel it in the moments before....
We look pretty rough lol, it was a long few hours. We truly had never been more relieved or more happy than this moment. My heart broke when I hugged our birth mom and felt how much she loved this baby. But I knew she was making the best decision for her and for our baby. I was and will ALWAYS be so proud of her. I believe she knew the decision she was making was for the best. There will never be a more selfless decision made by someone I know than the one she made that evening and I will forever have a place in my heart for her because of that. Brooklynn will know that her birth mom loved her first and loved her enough to make this decision for her and for her future and in turn give us the greatest gift ever. We left the hospital that night, very tired and very excited to get her home. It had been an emotional three days for everyone involved and we were running off sheer adrenaline. We stopped for coffee and headed home!!
Once arriving home this is what we saw....
here Daddy is introducing her to Lucy....
Since then we have all been learning about each other! She is a great baby! She sleeps SO good and eats like a champ! We couldn't be more proud to be her mommy and her daddy! She has had SO many visitors! I wish I could share all those pictures! I will try to in a few months if anyone cares to check back after we are able to post pictures. We have been eating so well, ha! Need to get outside and run these calories off! So many sweet friends and family have brought us supper. We have had people just about every night sharing their wonderful suppers with us. One of my best friends created a site where people could sign up and bring us supper.... we shouldn't have to go to the grocery store till February thanks to all these wonderful people! Baby B is so loved by so many! I truly do believe in the power of prayer... So many people out there that love us prayed for us, prayed for this baby girl, prayed for our birth family and I believe all those prayers are what led this baby to us. So to those of you that did pray for us I thank YOU! We truly do! I have had a few people say they keep up with this blog because they are considering adoption themselves.... I hope through this journey you can see that happy endings do happen! We are so very happy! We are a little tired ;) but thats to be expected! All the money spent, all the prayers prayed, all the time we waited, the other women that were possible birth moms for us (yes there were two other possible birthmoms we met that didn't work out - we didn't ever make this too public), all the tears we cried hoping one day to have a baby of our own .... it was ALL worth it as we look at this precious LITTLE girl! Our minds are filled with hope when we wonder how tall she will be, when we wonder whether her hair will be curly or straight, when we wonder what her first words will be, when we wonder what God has in store for HER future!
We have a sign hanging over her changing table that says,
God Blessed The Broken Road That Led Me Straight to YOU!
This was our wedding song and it also sums up how we feel for her. I laid on the couch the other night with this precious girl in my arms and said to Justin, I don't feel like she didn't come from me, I really can't imagine what it feels like to give birth to her, but I know it couldn't feel any better than it does to hold this angel in my arms. Justin agreed... we are in love with her. We are devoted to her and committed to her and we are more than anything THANKFUL for her! Thankful to our friends (some of our friends are pretty much like family to us!) and our wonderful family for being there for us on this long road, for laughing with us, crying with us, loving us when we needed it the most! Thankful to our agency Inheritance Adoptions for all they do every day for people like us, birth families and these precious innocent babies. They truly are a wonderful group of women that we have gotten to know very well and we feel blessed to call them friends and we know they love this little girl as they do all of their babies! Thankful to our few special friends that along this journey shared with us their adoption story - either they were adopted themselves or adopted their own babies.... each story shared with us helped us know that we were making the right decision for us and led us to where we are! Thankful to our birth family, pretty much ALL of our birth moms family hugged us and thanked us for what we were doing just as we thanked them. Thankful to our birth mom and birth dad for willingly blessing us with this precious girl. We want only the best for them in the future! And most of all thankful to God, He doesn't make mistakes. In my opinion, NO baby is a mistake, every baby is intended for someone. I truly do believe he intended for this precious girl to be ours and I am so thankful that He has blessed us with all the tools and people involved to bring her home to us!
On a final note, if you are ever interested in adoption, I made the decision to be so open because I wanted to be helpful to someone the way that a few special people in my life were to me and shared their adoption stories. If you ever have any questions or want to talk to me on a personal level I am always open to that. We both feel very comfortable talking about adoption. Brooklynn will always know she was adopted, she didn't grow under my heart but in in it! She will always know how TRULY wanted she was! We have only had her in our home 17 days and yet it feels like she has always been here. We are proud of our adoption story... as hard as it could be at times, it was ALL worth it cause the end result is me typing this and watching her daddy stick out his tongue at her and she do the same to him ( ha! gotta love the baby imitation stage!). I look forward to all we have in the future and we will never take this precious gift for granted! A few people have asked if we want more or if we will adopt again..... I can't imagine growing up without my sisters so there is nothing I would love more than to have more. Whether it be through adoption or biologically I know we want that. Till that happens we will just LOVE and enjoy every minute with this gift.
Whew.... this was a long one but the best update of all. I won't update again until we go to court in June and everything is legal. Then I will proudly boast pictures of our precious little girl. Till then please feel free to share this story - it makes my heart beam when people tell me they have shared our story with others. That was the only reason I started this blog was to share this story and possibly lead others to adoption or maybe help others see the beauty in it.
Here is a poem someone sent me that I would like to share in closing
The Day We Adopted You
If we had it to do over again Adoption is what we'd choose
We got more than we had hoped for the day we adopted you
For you have given us more in life than we could ever want or need
You made our house into a home and made our family complete
We love you more than life itself for all the things you say and do
And if we had it to do over again YOU would be the ONLY one we'd choose!
I want to share pictures but can't show any pictures of the babies face.... so will save those with family all for later. I do know she has lots of people who ADORE her and I have captured special moments with them all, thank you to all who have loved on her! Here are just a few special moments....
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| Daddy leaving us to go to work.... We missed him a LOT! |
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| Abby LOVES this baby girl... giving her kisses on her feet! |
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| my favorite moments... she loves to listen to him play and he loves to play to her! she likes Texas Country the best - Eli Young Band and Bart Crow so far ;) |
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| Daddys' recliner comes in handy! She loves to be rocked in this! |
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| Abby and Tyler with their new cousin... he loves blowing her kisses! |
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| Baby and Mama ready for our first Panther event - the girls basketball game and they won!... she loves dressing up in Panther clothes already! Next time I write on here I look forward to sharing more pics of her face and pictures with her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. She loves them all and again we are so thankful for ALL the prayers and LOVE we have received - it has been wonderful!! We love you all! |
