Adoption Finalization!!!!

We have a date set for sons adoption finalization! 

It's a Friday, July 21st!!!!

Exciting!!!!

 

  

3 month home visit

Today was the three month post placement visit. Half way to finalization!!!!

Last night was stormy so Son didn't sleep well. The rain gage had almost 2 inches in it this morning!  The rest of the day was rainy so we decided to run to town as a family. 

First we went to the library...

 

Then we went to DQ

   

Daughter got cold after we had our ice cream (I did too!)

 

Then while Mat and Joey waited in the car, Daughter and I did a Walmart run. She did the best she's ever done in the store!  I was so impressed!

It was a fun day even though it was pretty icky. 😊

3 months old!

Our little beef cake is three months old!

  He's pretty smiley (except the last few days through a growth spurt) and he giggles.

His "diet" that the doctor put him on is working. According to my scale, he's only gained 1.5 pounds in a month. 

He's sleeping more and more at night. Last night did a stretch for over 8 hours!

 

    

Adoption books

I ordered a couple of new adoption books off Amazon

 

 

Neither of the stories are exactly like ours, burly they're still close enough to melt my heart. Reading through them tonight they each brought happy tears 😊

Introducing Son!!!!

 

He's been with us since birth 6 weeks ago, but the TPR didn't go through as originally planned   The BM never wavered in her decision, but there were paperwork issues that just dragged it out. But now the TPR is done!!!!

It's been tough not being able to share anything, having to keep him more or less secret, and not being able to cross state lines- but he is such a blessing it's all worth it!  It definitely isn't the smoothest adoption, but also far from the hardest.

Daughter loves Son!  She doesn't love not being the center of attention. 

 

 

She often asks "put baby in swing?" When I'm feeding him. She's certainly getting better.

 Yesterday was the first time (aside from speech class) that I've attempted an outing with both kids solo- To a zoo class with our home school group.  That did not go well. Oh my. That did not go well. We ended up leaving early and one of my friends had to help get a screaming Daughter out.  It was tough. 

TPR tomorrow!!!

Please pray!  Pray for us, the birth mother, and Son. 

God please be with us all. 

On another note, Son passed his billirubin test today. Yay!!!

Home!

We're home!!!!

Tomorrow we need to go back to fargo to have Sons bilirubin checked. It was high enough that they wanted us to stay an extra night, but then it came down some. 

Mats parents stayed here to take care of Bevy and Mookie and they'll be here till Monday. What a Godsend!  And my parents ran errands for us in Fargo and my mom did the binding on Sons quilt (along with making minky blankets). We are pretty blessed with a wonderful family!

Continued prayers are appreciated. Tpr is set for Tuesday afternoon. 

Baby day!!!!!

Family growth!

 

Please pray!  I can't post any baby pics until the termination of parental rights. He's beautiful 😊

God is so good!!!

Last OB appointment was cancelled

Today Daughter and I went to fargo for the final OB appt (my parents watch Daughter while I go to appts).  But as I was pulling into Fargo I got a call that her appt had been cancelled. The SW who called didn't say the reason, but I think the doctor must have been doing a delivery. They weren't going to reschedule because she's delivering Friday. 

So we had lunch with my parents and hung out a bit. 

A bit of a downer, but I can wait until Friday. 

But before going to fargo, we ran some errands closer to home and stopped at the library. Daughter was pretty excited about moon books!  We got 5!

 

Things off the to-do lists...

We are checking things off our to do lists!  I've repacked the hospital bag, with a separate bag for Son (coming home outfit, blankies, boppy pillow, first pics outfit), put together the Rock N Sleep

 

My awesome aunt, Pam, picked up his quilt for me (my long arm quilter is about 1.5 hours away in her town) and gave it to my mom. I'll pick it up from my mom tomorrow when we're in Fargo for an OB appt. then I'll get it labeled and bound!  

 

Yay!  It's super spacey and I love it :)

Mat has been busy with his to-do list and really pumping out the projects. He fixed the vent tube in the crawl space that some critter had torn apart....

 

Little fix it projects that will just make life easier when Son comes home.  And now he's going to work on the tractor. 

I need to do some more laundry, write some thank yous, clean, and give Mat a haircut. But it's looking pretty good!

Today Daughter did really well in Sunday School, Church, and Bible Study (only one melt down at the end of Bible Study, which is really good for her) so we decided to go get our Sundaes on Sunday's at DQ

 

And she did really well there, too!  She stayed in the booth and ate!  So unlike her, but really great!

This was our last Sunday as a family of three 😊

OB appointment

I went to an OB appt with the birth mom yesterday. It's so great to hear soon-to-be-Son's heart beat!

She also got us a gift 😊

She's scheduled to deliver next Friday.  But if she goes early, she goes early!

I've not been sleeping well.  This happened before Daughter was born, too.  There's the extra fear of what if she changes her mind?  

Everyone involved thinks she's very set in her decision not to parent (SWs, her, Mat and I) but there's always a chance she could change her mind until she signs the papers.

Please pray!

Busy busy!

We had an amazing Christmas!  Daughter was so into it!  She bursts out in "Away in a Manger" at least 10 times a day. She was in her first Christmas Pageant at church. That didn't go so well... on her part, but it was cute to watch (for Mat and family who actually got to watch, rather than wrestle Daughter into costumes and into place).

She got some fun presents!

 

 

Also all of the cats were fixed. It was(is) a much longer and more expensive ordeal than we anticipated  the two vet trips turned into 5, and they all needed ear nite treatment and Silly had an urinary tract infection 😞

But now they're all home and only 2 need to go back again 😊

 

New year was fun!

 

We're doing a ton to get ready for Son. We've been busy and still have more to do!

Pre Natal Appointment

I went with Birth Mother to another pre natal appointment.  It went great!  Everything seems to be on course for the due date.  I heard the heart beat again!

It's so surreal. 

We have so much to do!  I got done with my Christmas shopping today.  Woot!  That's one thing off the list. 

One month to go!

Pre natal visit

I went with to a pre-natal visit last week.  I heard Son's heartbeat!  mat couldn't make it but I recorded it for him :)

Birth Mother introduced me as the adoptive mother to the nurse and the doctor.  :)

She also gave me a gift!  All of the free samples and coupons she's been getting because she's pregnant and a very cute and soft Winnie the Pooh receiving blanket that she had picked out at First Choice Clinic (a pro-life organization to help pregnant women and mothers in need with education and basic needs).

I got some answers from the doctor and the visit went well.  Then we went out to lunch and got to talk a bit more.  It was great!

She has another appointment in a couple weeks.  I'm invited again! 

So exciting :)

Adoption brain...

I really think it's worse than pregnancy brain.  Not only do I have all of the stresses (and joys!  miraculous joys!!!) of being about to bring home a baby, but rather than 9 months to prepare, I only have 2 (if that!)!!!

Seriously... every little thing that I do seems to take twice as long.  My brain won't stop running a mile a minute!  I need to do this... I need to do that... I need to do the-other-thing-that-I-can't-think-of-right-now-because-my-brain-isn't-working-right!

We can do it.  We can do it.  We can help our Cinderellie...

Tis but one example of how my brain is working these days.  ( did I mention daughter is now really into Cinderella?)

We're going to have a baby!!!!!!  :D

It's official

We're "matched"

CFLS waiting families

Match meeting!

While Daughter and I were driving home on Monday, we got a call... it was CFLS, our adoption agency.  I saw it on the caller ID but never answer my phone while I'm driving.  I thought what if this is the call?!? but then made myself not get my hopes up and assumed it was just a call to check in.

We pulled into the drive way a few minutes later and the phone chimed (come to think of it, I still haven't listened to the message) and I thought that must have been a pretty long message.  So I got Daughter inside and went to the bathroom, then was going to call them back.  I looked at my phone and I had 2 new texts from Mat...

"We need to call back SW ASAP today about something.  I'm in a meeting and can't call until 1:30.  Can you call and let me know what time works for you both this afternoon?? Love you!"

and

"text me when you read this"

Eeeep!  So I called... and then she wanted to talk with both of us, would that evening work?  We were going to take Daughter Trick or Treating... so we did an immediate conference call with Mat at work and me at home (after turning on a movie to entertain Daughter while I was on the phone)

We'd been matched!  Eeeeeppppp!  The birth mother is due in January and chose us right away in August when she came to the agency, but they wanted to wait until she was sure about the adoption plan to fill us in.  SW gave us the details she had and asked us to pray about the adoption and give her a call the following day about whether or not we thought it was a good match.  When we hung up with her, Mat called home right away and we agreed instantly that it was a blessing!

So I was going to call right away on Tuesday, but our phone and internet were out, I could only text, so I asked Mat to call.  He set up a "match meeting" for Friday, today.

It went great!  She is such a wonderful selfless person.  We gave her a pair of TARDIS slippers to wear at the hospital (and before!) because SW had told us Doctor Who was something we had in common with her.  She loved them!  And she gave us the CD of the ultrasound from 2 months ago with a handwritten message on the cover "To: Parents.  Congrats! -(name of BM)"

How sweet!!!!

So do you want to see pictures of our Son?

There are pictures that prove he is a boy, but I won't post them ;)


We are so ecstatic!!!  Praise God!!!  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

Nothing is finalized until termination of parental rights.  We're trying to guard our hearts, but it seems to us and the SW that she is really set with this decision.  She can change her mind though...  Please pray!

Our agency called

Not THE call, just to check in. 

She said that birth mothers are interested in our profile and they really like our book. That's great!  

Other info that I got was that the meeting would come about one month before the due date of the future birth mother and it would be at the adoption agency. That's wonderful because when we had our group study back in 2012, they said a lot of adoptive families meet their birth families at restaurants. Daughter does not generally do well a at restaurants. 

So... Maybe there is a birth mother who they're still counseling who will choose us?  We can hope!!!!

Now 1 of 13 waiting families...

It's disheartening.

CFLS waiting families


I knew going into this that it averages about a year through this agency... but I was really convinced that a birth mother was going to see our profile and fall in love with us right away.  I'm still pretty confident that the right birth parents are going to choose us, but there just aren't any coming up through CFLS.  Only one couple has had a placement since we've been on the list.  1 match in 5 months....

I don't like those odds.

Please pray for us.

Now we're 1 of 12 waiting families....

It started out with us being one of seven.  Then one family was matched and we became one of six!

The number of families has been climbing and now sits at 12.  It's a bit disheartening.  Our odds were better as one of 6 families, right?

I try not to look at it that way.  The right birth mother will chose us when the time is right. 

It's just hard.