Answered prayers....: A Year Ago....

***if you want to see something sweet go to the bottom of this LONG post and watch the YouTube video, daddy loves to sing to B and she has loved to listen since she came into the world!

A year ago at this time we were at our house, had just finished all the fun Christmas stuff with family but this year was different everyone had given Brooklynn (our unborn daughter) gifts.... I was very nervous about this. Our baby wasn't ours yet, our birth mom had told me she never would change her mind that she was 100 % sure that B would be going home with us but a part of me had this fear that when she saw her it would be understandably hard to let her go. So a part of me was a MESS, a BIG part of me. It wasn't like we were going to the hospital to have a baby and bring her home, we were going to the hospital to watch someone else have a baby, give birth to her and hold out hope she would send her home with us..... I worried would she change her mind and I worried about her. How hard this would be on her, how heartbreaking this would be for her and her family. I had no idea what awaited us as we left in the early morning hours of December 28th to go to the hospital and meet our baby.

This is funny, maybe a month before B's due date I got this in my fortune cookie while I was working, so excited and of course CRIED when I read this.

The morning we were driving up to be there for the birth of our daughter my sis sent this to me! My niece was more excited than almost anyone about having a little girl cousin!!

The next few days would be the best and toughest of our lives. We weren't able to have family at the hospital, this is done out of respect for the birthfamily. We knew this and were of course okay with this but we didn't realize how much we depend on our families until then either. It was very tough going through the next 48 hours without them there with us, but I know it was BEST it was just us. It taught me to rely on my husband in a way I wasn't used to doing, he was all I had there and I was all he had as well. There was another person there with us both, we got closer to God in those next few days more than ever before. We came to realize and count on him in what were some of the toughest days for us like many do. I hate saying that a scary situation like when we thought for a few minutes we wouldn't bring the baby home that we had come to love would bring us closer to God but it did. Our birthmom began to change her mind in the last few minutes she had with her before signing papers, this decision was tougher on her than she had imagined it being and after we had all spent 48 hours "sharing" Brooklynn with the intent of course for us to take her home, she just wasn't ready to let her go. We were incredibly distraught, we had spent two days loving, learning about, taking care of B and there was nothing we could do at this point but pray and ask those we love to pray as well. I think maybe all of Midlothian was praying for us in those final moments. We weren't trying to make our birthmom make a decision she didn't want to make, we just knew Brooklynn would be in good hands with us. After many tears our birthmom made the decision she had known in her heart she wanted to make since August when she met us. She had the support of her family there with her and they were all so supportive of us. It was by far the roughest two days of our lives, I didn't give birth to B, but we experienced so many emotions in those days we can't even begin to explain. We spent 60 hours at the hospital in Wichita Falls not knowing till the last hour if the little girl we loved would go home with us for sure until we got in the car and drove away with her. It was bitter sweet, our family at home was rejoicing, we were relieved yet a part of us was heartbroken for the family that had given her to us. Adoption is a beautiful thing. It is a TOUGH thing, nobody ever said it was easy, every situation is different, special and genuine. Ours was a ROLLER COASTER of emotions but we both know we would do it all over again if it meant we got our Brooklynn Faith.

Now here we are one year later and we are about to celebrate her turning one! She isn't having a party till the summer! We decided we would just do supper with our parents and sisters and us tomorrow on her birthday and then have a party with the rest of our BIG family and friends in the summer to celebrate her turning 1 1/2 and also to celebrate her "gotcha day" the day she legally became ours - June 28th! Here are a few pics of our girl over the last year, everyone knows I take lots of pics but here are just a few.

this is what we came home to.... it was late at night on Friday Dec 30th and our family and friends had decorated our house for Brooklynns arrival, we didn't want anyone at our house when we got there because mentally and physically we were exhausted so they decorated and cleaned the house and cooked for us!

this is a horrible pic of me with a towel on my head LOL but I love it because its "real life" - introducing my mom and sister to their granddaughter/niece

another pic of our pretty porch - we were so proud of how pretty everything looked for B!

My dad, sister and niece meeting B

Daddy introducing B to her Nana B for the first time!

Yes you are perfect my sweet girl

My Ma with her great granddaughter, there is so better place to be nuzzled up than a grandmas!

The moment we first saw our daughter AFTER papers had been signed and we knew she was ours, this picture can't put into words what this moment felt like, I will never forget it.