Meeting Our Birthmom

The weekend of Valentine's Day we drove down to Atlanta to meet our birthmom and her family. It was a LONG trip (we drove about 26 hours in 60 hours) but it was such a nice visit! We got to meet 7 people in her family. We all shared hugs, stories, and love for baby boy! Our social worker told us to plan for the visit to be 1- 1 1/2 hours long but we ended up staying almost 3 hours and it flew by! We met at a McDonalds so the boys could play while we visited but after 15 minutes they closed the play area because they had a birthday party scheduled. So we got some food, Kaleb hadn't even taken a bite yet and he threw up all over me and our part of the table and floor. Anyone that was around Kaleb when we first adopted him knows that he used to throw up daily. Thankfully its only a few times a year now but of course it was when we are meeting with our very pregnant birthom and her family. I was really hoping it wasn't the flu, we didn't want our birthmom to get sick. But he ate dinner and was fine the rest of the day. 

We got to talk about so many things that we just couldn't or wouldn't talk about over the phone. It wasn't akward at all. We picked out a name for baby boy together (such a sweet story for another post) that has meaning to both of us. She really feels like extended family!! We love her and her love for our baby boy so much!!! I have heard that open adoption can be such a blessing and I couldn't understand what exactly people meant. BUt now I can see how it can be a beautiful thing! Our son won't have questions about his birthfamily or wonder if his first mommy loved him-he will know she does and be able to find out anything about his birth family that he wants to know!! 

Today is our birthmom's due date, so we are just waiting for the call to come to the hospital and meet our baby boy!!!!!!

Part 2......We Have Been Chosen!!!!!!!

On Tuesday Feb 3rd we got a call from An Open Door. Just as my plan time was starting both my cell phone and school phone started to ring. It was Brad on both, lol. Brad said "I have Tracy on the phone. Are you ready for this roller coaster?" We were just approved with the agency on Friday and they showed our book to a birthmom on Saturday and Monday. They don't tell us when our book is shown, they just call if the birthmom chooses you. Well last Tuesday we were told that our birthmom chose US! Her and her parents looked at 10 books and they said they fell in love with our family and chose us!! She is around 37 weeks!! Tracy said the only catch was that they don't know the gender. The night before we had contacted Tracy and told her that we really felt that we were going to have a daughter and wanted to be shown to girl situations. But as soon as she said they didn't know the gender, we quickly replied that we don't care. A baby is a blessing and we knew that we really didn't care either way. Here was the other catch....we need to whole agency fee asap. They didn't want us to talk to birthmom until they had all the money. Once again we knew this wouldn't be possible without God. If we hadn't had that situation the week before we wouldn't have received that grant. Only God!!!!! Praise God through many different avenues the money is there and we got to talk to our birthmom on Monday night!!!!! It started a little awkward, but it went really great. We planned to have another conference call again next week.
She had a doctors appointment on Wednesday and our caseworker called me and put me on speaker phone. Our birthmom and her mom quickly yelled "Hi Tara" with excitement in the background. I got to hear the heartbeat and hear the doctor saying that everything was looking great!!!! Then she asked if we all wanted to know its gender. All four of us quickly said "YES!!!" It took her a few minutes but then the doctor said "IT'S A BOY!!!!" Our case worker, birthmom and gramnda all started saying "FOUR boys, Tara its #4!" What a huge gift to me!!!!!!!! I'm so thankful she allowed me to experience that with her. We have such a sweet start to a relationship and love her so much!!! Her due date got pushed back a few days and think baby should be here around March 1st!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are so thankful for every step of this process. We know nothing is final until its final with domestic adoption. But my good friend Debb gave me the advice that "you won't regret loving BIG!" We are loving her and supporting her and thankful she is including us in this process as much as she can from afar. God has opened so many, many doors and we know we are exactly where we need to be!!!
Thank you for all the prayers and encouragement!!! We are so thankful we serve a Mighty God who is faithful in all things!!!!! 

A Little Update to the Story God is Writing in Our Lives Part 1

We have applied with 3 different agencies just to get our profile book out there. When we were researching agencies we really liked An Open Door but they have a larger commitment fee (some agencies only have like $100 fee to apply and be "active" with them). We decided to try our other 2 agencies first and just wait on An Open Door for now. Fast forward to the first week of Janurary. We were visiting some friends and talking about the whole domestic adoption process. We were saying that we really wanted to apply with An Open Door but the large commitment fee was a big step. We have no extra money in this process and we really wanted to be wise and prayerful about each step. When we arrrived home from our friends house we had a letter in the mail stating that we had a grant from Show Hope that was a little over what the commitment fee was. I sent  a text to the friend we were just visiting and she said this was our sign from God to apply with AOD. I hadn't even thought about that. But after talking and praying, Brad and I really felt that we should send in our application and commitment fee. The ladies at An Open Door have been in excellent communication and so very helpful!! We were excited as she said that 6 birthmoms were going to be looking at profile books in January. It took about 2-3 weeks to get everything sent in and approved so I'm thinking we might have missed being shown to them. In the meantime, our agency in UT called (Wed, Jan 28th) with a situation about a baby girl due in less than 2 weeks and they couldn't find a family for her. This was an agency pick and there weren't any other families being considered at this time. There were a lot of unknowns and risks with that situation but we said we wanted to be considered. We felt good about moving forward even with the scary unknowns ahead. There was also a $10,000 extra fee because birthmom was going to deliver in a different state. Yikes! The financial part is the scary part. The caseworker had made this sound like a less than wonderful thing but we said yes anyways.
On Thursday and Friday we contacted several grants that we had applied for and hadn't heard from yet. We were contacted that a grant was going to cover $10,000!!!!!!!!!!!! What?!?!?! That was a huge surprise and a huge amount!!! Brad got the call that brought him to tears when he was at Walmart. This was another sign the we are on God's path for our lives. Our family was here for Kaleb's birthday that weekend so we got to share the good news and add a little pink to the baby's room. At the end of Kaleb's brithday party on Saturday we got a text that birthmom was struggling with her choice. We were sad but there were just so many doors that God has opened so we continued to trust. On Monday (Feb 2nd) our UT agency called and said that the birthmom was leaning toward parenting and they had some reservations with her. They asked if we wanted to wait it out or look at other situations. I felt like the agency was saying it's not going to happen but I felt like so many doors had opened from God. I mean $10,000?!?!?!?
Part 2 starts on Tuesday, Feb. 3rd.........