One Year Ago (a little late)

Between Sonshine School, celebrating our informal Gotcha Day (a new Gotcha Day coming soon!!!), and going to bed at 9:15 last night, I didn't get any blogging in! Those who know me much at all, know that 9:15 is extremely early for me! We all (M, included) got to sleep in until 10:30 today. Nice!!

On to the good stuff.....

One year ago, September 17th, 2008, I woke up from the restless night of sleep I had and started getting ready to meet our baby. I don't remember a whole lot about the morning before seeing her, but I do know that I was just trying to keep occupied. I was just so excited to get our first baby!

At 1:30 on that fall afternoon, I arrived at the agency, car seat buckled in the back of my car. Josh met me up at the agency to meet our little M. We knew so little of her, we just couldn't wait to see her! We waited in the office for several minutes, until M's (amazing) social worker, K, pulled up. We watched out the front window, as K pulled her from the back seat. I was instantly in love. M was so tiny in her little animal print pajamas. But, the first thing I noticed was her gorgeous dark hair. She had a head-full of straight, silky hair. She was sleeping and they handed her to me instantly. Although I've held so many newborns and taken care of babies, I remember feeling so nervous about holding my little tiny baby girl. She was so cuddly and so perfect.

After signing all of our paperwork, I loaded M into her car seat and headed to the church building. We took her to Josh's office to show his co-workers and allow Josh to have a little more time with her. We took lots of photos, then headed home, just me and M, to cuddle. But, the first thing I did when we got home, was put a bow in her hair!! We cuddled all afternoon and then went to Chick-fil-a for dinner with Matt, Mandy and Viv. We took more pictures, then went to church. I kept her in a little baby sling the whole time, but she wasn't very happy. There were too many new noises, people, experiences, etc. for one day. Looking back. I can't believe that I didn't take a week to just stay home with her to bond, give her some time to get used to her new home, etc. I guess I was just super excited to take her to church and show our friends and family this precious little baby that would be in our home for a while. If I had to do it over again, I definitely would have taken a week off to just be home with her and ease her in to new situations. But, she survived!

None of got very much sleep for the next several days, but we didn't care, she was just too perfect! From the moment that we saw her, my new prayer was, "Lord, please prepare my heart for whatever will happen with M (adopting her or giving her back)." I felt like that was what got me through the whole foster parenting thing, in general.

Here are a few answers to some questions I've gotten lately:

-We plan to foster more children in the next several months, after we take a break to just be the 3 of us, without any visits, paperwork, etc.

-We just found out yesterday that a date for finalization had been set for next Friday, but due to some clerical errors, we are going to have to be on a 30 day wait. So, mid to late October, hopefully she'll be officially our daughter. We'll keep you posted!



We feel like this past year has been filled with so many blessings! We are so thankful that God chose us to raise such a wonderful and beautiful baby girl!