Olivia's Birth Week

To view the pics click on the photo above and it will direct you to my Google Web Album!!

Thank you for all your love and support during our infertility struggles, our waiting to be matched with a BM and all the way through Olivia's finalization!! We are truly LOVED and BLESSED!!!

The week our daughter was born....

Last time I blogged was when we found out our baby was going to be born in 3 weeks.....well, our baby decided to surprise us and come early.
Here's our story of that week:
It was May 29th (a Sunday) and my parents had come to visit for the weekend to help us prep for baby Locklear's, aka Miss L, arrival around May 12th. We woke up Sunday morning at about 8:30am and just started to get through the first round of coffee and morning routines before the phone rang (30 minutes later)......It was our BM!!

**Just a recap, we were nervous just 3 days prior because we couldn't get a hold of her and we were scared she had decided to not go through with the adoption**

We were THRILLED to see she was actually calling us!! Dan picked up the phone, I was in another room and on my way to listen in when Dan's voice changed and say "REALLY?!?" My heart jumped and 10 seconds later I yelled at him "Is she in LABOR?!?" Dan didn't answer me, he was trying to listen to what our BM had to say. As soon as he hung us, he said calmly "She's at the hospital, in labor, dilated to a 9." I screamed....ran to my parents yelling "SHE'S IN LABOR!! SHE'S IN LABOR!!!" My parents were so excited and tears of joy began to fall.....THEN panic/overwhelming feelings hit me.....What do I do first, pack, book our airfare, take a shower...what?!? My mom said calmly "You go take care of the airfare, a shower and pack yourselves, I will take care of packing the baby's stuff." God bless my mother!! Since she's been through this (3 times) she was able to focus Dan and I and get us going. Next thing we know, we are on a plane 4 hours later to Phoenix, AZ.

We arrived in AZ just 5 hours after our baby was born. We went straight to the hospital. We waited at the nurse's station for confirmation that our BM would like to see us....talk about a NERVOUS wait!! The nurse said that our BM would like to see us and took us to her room. We walked in and there we saw our BM holding the baby. I choked back my tears of joy and smiled and said "I'm so happy to finally meet you!!" Our BM was tired but seemed happy/nervous to meet us. We asked about her labor and delivery. It was went smoothly!! Then.....after a quiet moment in conversation, our BM said "Would you like to hold your baby?" Still choking back tears of joy, I said yes...nervously. And that was when we 1st held Miss L. After about 10 minutes in the BM's room we decided to leave her to rest and take the baby to a "family room" to bond.

**This is when we started photo documenting**

Dan and I took turns holding baby. We were so nervous/excited!! We were able to bond for a couple of hours before the nurse had to take her for testing. At that time the hospital social worker came to speak to us. She asked us if we had a place to stay, which we did not (we wanted to see what hotels were closest to the hospital). She gave us a list of suggested hotels within a 1/2 mile of the hospital. We then left the hospital and checked into the hotel.

Day 2 (Monday, May 2nd) in AZ:

We woke up, got ready, went to find a very quick breakfast then headed to the hospital. We went to the nursery to check up on the baby . We were greeted graciously by the nurse who knew our situation and loves adoption!! Luckily the hospital wasn't very busy with babies so we were able to have 1 whole section of the nursery to ourselves the entire time we spent at the hospital that week.

We were there a couple of hours when another nurse came in and said that the BM would like to say her good-byes to the baby and fed her one last time. We were slightly nervous but told the nurse to tell the BM to take as much time as she needed to say good-bye and that we would like to say good-bye to her as well when she was ready.

While the nurse wheeled Miss L away we left to the "family room" and called our attorneys. Yes that is plural!! We technically have 3 (one from our agency, one in Idaho to represent us and one in Arizona to represent the birth parents). We need to get our paper work started on the TPR (termination of parental rights). After our conference calls, a nurse came back in and told us that J (birthmom) was leaving and being discharged. We wanted to see her before she left.

We went to her room and she was freshly showered waiting on the bed with her stuff. I hugged her and started to tear up as I thanked her for making us a family and being so selfless!! I asked her if we could take a picture with her and J replied yes with hesitation....she was worried about what she looked like. So I told her that we can take a picture when she comes back in a couple of hours to sign the Medical POA to give us legal medical rights for Miss L.

While we waited for J to come back, we took Miss L to the family room and watching the new parent videos (a hospital requisite) and took turns holding and loving on her.

When J returned we went back to the nursery and took some pictures with all 4 of us!! It was so amazing!!! I'm so excited that we will have these photos to share with Miss L.

**Also we were able to OFFICIALLY name her!! J decided to wait on putting a name on the birth certificate until she could talk to us and put the name we had chosen on the original certificate...again, the BM is truly AMAZING!!! We decided to name her OLIVIA LY!! Ly (pronounced Lee) is Dan's middle name and also Dan's mom's maiden name, it's Chinese. **

We left the hospital later that evening for the night and went to Target. We need to buy the essentials for tomorrow since Olivia was being discharged to us. LOL....you should have seen us in the baby aisle....oh man, we were hilarious I'm sure. We had no idea what diapers, wipes and formula to buy....we eventually figured it out and left with a cart load of baby stuff, including the car seat.

Day 3 (Tuesday, May 3rd) in AZ:

We got up and ready for the day pretty early and left for the hospital. (I'm so glad our hotel was so close to the hospital) We spend the morning in the nursery hanging out with Olivia (holding her, watching her sleep, feeding her and changing her). Around 11am the pediatric doctors started to make their rounds. Then after rounds they would come back and discharge Miss L to us. During rounds, Olivia was great and showed no signs or reasons not to be discharged. The doctors told us that they would be back soon to discharge.......well......soon turned out to be 4 hours later..... We finally got "home" and situated in the hotel for the night. Our first night went rather well for Olivia.....now Momma on the other hands was restless and kept checking on the baby every hour or so.

Day 4 (Wednesday, May 4th) in AZ:

Since we had no idea on how long it was going to take our ICPC (Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children) to be approve so we could leave AZ and head back home to Idaho, we decided to head to Tucson, AZ. My grandpa was so generous to have us use his winter home there. It was about a 2 hour drive and Miss L did well. It was nice to a home to settle in rather than a hotel. We had a beautiful view of the Catalina Mountains and the Ventana Golf course. We spent the rest of the day hanging out with Olivia....some much wanted bonding time.

Day 5 (Thursday, May 5th) in AZ:

After another newborn night, I got up with Olivia and let Dan sleep in. We are both extremely exhausted not only from having a newborn but also all the emotions we have been going through this week. Speaking of emotions, shortly after Dan got up he received a phone call. It was J's attorney. He told us that both birth parents signed their TPR!! YAY!! What a relief!! We both had a good feeling about the signing but you just can't help yourself and feel slightly nervous that they could change their minds. We were so relieved to be able to fly home the next day. We called AdoptHelp and they were surprised by how fast our ICPC came through....it usually takes over a week!! We booked our flight out that night!!

Day 6 (Friday, May 6th):

We got up and got to packing because our flight left out of Phoenix at 1:30 and we had to drive from Tucson, return the rental car and get through security with a newborn....EEKKKK!!

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to check in and make our way to the gate with Olivia....or so we thought......

We got to the check-in counter and the lady at the counter admired Olivia then asked how old she was. I replied "5 days"...she replied with a shocked look "wow, did you call us ahead to verify she can fly?"....we were like WHAT?!? No...why would we, we had no clue....

Come to find out that the airline could not let us aboard without a doctor's permission due to the liability in case Olivia's lungs weren't matured enough for the pressurization of the airplane cabin. We were freaking out....then the airline's Customer Service Managers came out and talked to us to help us in any way possible (they were awesome!!). We called the hospital pediatrician and of course the office was close for lunch so we had to wait and miss our flight until we could get that doctor's note. FINALLY after 30 minutes we were able to talk to the doctor and he faxed a note over. The airline manager came running over when he got it and grabbed our things, told us to follow him and then ran to the ticket counter to check our bags and book our flight for the next flight (which was set to leave within the hour). We finally made on the flight and Olivia was awesome!! She slept the entire time...through security, through the terminal and the flights!!

Of course we were loved and adored by all on the flights with our new little bundle of joy!! We were luck enough to have a layover in Reno, where we had Dan's sister Beth come to the airport to meet her niece for the first time!! So amazing!! My parents drove over that day (a 4 hour drive) just to pick us up from the airport!! We enjoyed having them there and meeting Olivia for the first time.

Day 7 (Saturday, May 7th):

We spent the day with my parents and Olivia, since they were leaving that day to go back home.

**End of the week**

We are very blessed and oh so thankful for all that everyone has given us!! We couldn't be more pleased and appreciative!! THANK YOU!! Thank you!! THANK YOU!! Our hearts are filled with all the love and support!!

If you'd like to see the photo documentation of our week check it out the post labeled: Olivia's Birth Week!!

This JuJu thing really WORKS!!

So this week and last week I have been crazy busy at work, I have been working overtime due to training a new hire for one of our branches....and then Wednesday evening happened!! I recieved this call from Meredith (I was actually still at work). She is with AdoptHelp....I was instantly excited when she announced who was calling!! She told us that we have been chosen by a BM and that she would like to send us the information to review. Of course I was jumping up and down and practically screaming YES!! As soon as we hung up I called Dan, who was also still at work. He was overjoyed too!!

We both quickly finished up our work and raced home to read the BM's info. The BM info was AWESOME!! She is a 20 yr old Hispanic living in AZ. She has 1 child who just turned 1 this year with a different father (who knows about the adoption but doesn't want to father a child yet). She is in great health and has been taking great care of herself during her pregnancy. The baby daddy is 1/2 Caucasian 1/4 Filipino and 1/4 Korean....I know what you're thinking....baby will look like US!! LOL!! BM wants to have a C-Section because she feels she will be less attatched to the baby at birth. Some of our mommy friends have agreed. She is cute and so super excited to give us a family!! We spoke to her on the phone on Friday night and it was truely amazing!! She was nervous (so were we) but you could tell she was smiling ear-to-ear. Her personality is shy but I can detect a sweet and fun loving side as well. She made me tear up several times with these statements: "this baby is yours" "don't be worried about me changing my mind, cause I'm not" "it's your choice cause this baby is yours" !! I was floored when she kept assuring us that this is our baby and that she wont' change her mind. Did she read my last blog post...LOL!! Anyway, after our phone call with her, we KNEW she was the one who was going to give us our lil' Locklear!! The 2 BEST details: it's a GIRL and she is due May 12th!!

May 12th is only 2 weeks away and that is her actual due date not her c-section date (still waiting on that date). So chances are pretty high we could have Miss baby Locklear in our arms next week!! *tear* *tear*

Here is our first "picture" of her:

So at this time we are planning like CrAzY!!! We are scheduling time off work, talking about what we need to get done before we leave to AZ to pick her up, we are researching daycares & peds drs and we are creating a list of names for her!! I'm so excited for this that I can't sleep at night...guess this will help prep me a little for the late night feedings...LOL!!

Now onto the legalities of the situation: AZ state law is that the BM can not sign away her rights until 72 hrs after birth. The reason for that is they don't want the BM making legal decisions while on meds/pain killers/whatever....which is pretty typical. Once the 72 hrs are up and she signs the papers we will get a call saying Miss baby Locklear is OURS and we can take her home!! Which means she can still change her mind until she signs her rights away...which will be the L.O.N.G.E.S.T wait E.V.E.R!! The adoption will not be finalized in ID until we recieve a judical consent, meaning a Judge has to sign off on the adoption first. So once we get home we have to wait until we can get into court and appear before the Judge...our estimate wait time for that here in ID is 60 days, give or take.

SO, thank you again for ALL your support thru this glorious journey of ours!! We are so excited to become parents and grow our family through adoption!!

TV Shows & Positive JuJu!!

So tonight I thought I would catch up on my DVR shows that Dan isn't fond of since he was busy in the office. So I chose to watch One Tree Hill and Parenthood (don't judge, I have several guilty pleasure shows)...LOL, well...I chose the wrong episodes to catch up on. The One Tree Hill episode was the one where 1 of the couples are in the process of adoption and their BM going into labor and they are waiting at the hospital and being a support system for the BM during her labor. **Spoiler Alert - if you watch this show and haven't seen this episode, don't read on cause I give it away** Also while this couple is waiting for their BM to delivery, their friends are at the same hospital delivering their baby. It ends up where the BM's boyfriend showed up during the delivery to "step up as the father" which causes the BM to change her mind on adoption......this FREAKS the HELL out of me!!! Then when their friends had their baby (& by the way the friends didn't know about the BM delivery let alone the change of heart), the couple meet the friends baby and when she went to hold it it was just too much for me....I was bawling, while cooking dinner, and started to think about when our time comes to meet our baby, is the BM going to change her mind?!? Oh man....my mind is racing....To focus my mind on something else I decided to watch Parenthood. WELL....apparently 1 of the female characters is TTC for her 2nd child with her husband, she went to her dr to make sure everything was fine to concieve....well it turns out, she CAN'T concieve...WOW, hit another soft spot, once again crying (this time while eating dinner, but luckily I had Dan here to console me). Oh man, emotions are roll'n crazy tonight.

We may be 6 months in waiting BUT I feel very blessed with the overwhelming amount of support we have recieved!! I know I've said it before and I will continue to say it...THANK YOU for your support!! It truely means the world to us!! I have also found an amazing group of women who are going or who has been through this same process to "lean on". This support group of ladies may be a virtual group BUT I feel like they are always close by and willing to listen and help me understand the feelings in which we are going through!! THANKS ladies!! ;0)

Even though it's rough waiting, I look forward to when the time comes when we get to hold our baby for the 1st time, name our baby and bring our baby home!! This excitement bring us such joy and positive "juju" (yes, that's a technical term...LOL!!) for us to continue on our course to growing our family through adoption...it has helped our focus so much that we've even discuss that we are going to do the 2nd time around...LOL!! Ahhh, can't wait!! =0)

6th Status Update & Approved!!

Well, here it is almost mid-April which means it's been 6 months since we've started to be presented to BMs. We haven't heard anything more than a peep since right after New Years from any BMs....which has been really difficult to endure. BUT we are excited that Summer is coming because we have a ton of activities planned, starting with this weekend: Going on the Yakima Valley Spring Wine Barrel Tasting Tour!! We pretty much have atleast 1 trip (mostly small, local trips) planned each month. I hear that our "CALL" will come when we least expect it....so here's to keeping our minds busy with travels!!

As far as being presented, we were presented to 5 BMs: 3/16 ~ S: Hasn't chosen a family yet; 3/18 ~ T: Has fallen off the radar; 3/25 ~ N: Hasn't chosen a family yet; 3/29 ~ S: Hasn't chosen a family yet; 3/30 ~ D: Hasn't chosen a family yet.
Hopefully one of these selfless ladies will choose us to parent their child. We are so so ready to be parents!! Dan has been mentioning (every time we are around any baby/child) that he's so ready.....it still stings to hear those words since I am uable to have any control over making that dream a reality for him...BUT I have learned (through wonderful friendships and support) that it's NOT my fault, as much as I really feel it is, that we don't not have a baby yet. A big HUGE THANKS to my support system (YOU know who your are)!!! You've helped me in ways that a blogged/written/spoken "thanks" is not enough to show my appreciation.

On another note, we recieved our Home Study back and BIG SURPRISE......we were APPROVED!! LOL!! We will be sending that over to AdoptHelp to add to our file. That way we will be presented to BMs who are further along in their final trimester. That last few BMs that we were presented to had between 4-8 weeks left in their pregnancy, so that should give you an idea of "earlier".

I wish my readers well and thanks for following along in our journey!!

5th Status Update & a Crib!!

Well, we have received our 5th monthly status update:

2/4 ~ Marta: Matched with a Family

We were only able to be presented to 1 BM due to the fact we ran out of profiles. Like I said in the Feb 17th blog, we ordered 15 more profiles to be printed. AdoptHelp has received them and we are good to go...hopefully we won't need to print anymore (it's kinda spendy).

We bought our crib tonight!! I have been kicking myself for the last 2 weeks that I didn't buy "the" crib when I had a chance (it was regular priced $529 @ JC Penny, then went on sale for $349, THEN went to closeout sale of $279....and I waited to buy.....now it's clearanced out, for good) =0(
Then I heard about this local baby boutique store (The Baby Daily) that is going out of business (actually closing their doors on Saturday) and I dragged, err, I mean brought Dan with me to check out what they had and how great the sale was, since it was a boutique-type store I was pretty skeptical of the pricing. We found a crib that was displayed (which was only a display for less than a week due to the fact they are clearing out their warehouse)!! We purchased the Bonavita Hudson Lifestyle crib in chocolate!! Dan is picking it up tomorrow after work...best part, he won't really have to put it together!! Here is a picture of what it looks like...I will post what it looks like in the nursery later.

www.bonavita-cribs.com/products/cribs/lifestyle/hudson-lifestyle-crib_3.html

And here it is.....the crib in the nursery!! =0)

I hope this blog finds you happy and well!! Even though we need all the happy positive thoughts we can get to have our lil' Locklear find us.....we'd like to share those positive thoughts and send them to those who need it more than us (You know who you are)!! HUGS!!

Nursery Update!!

Well, here is an update to the Nursery!! Like I'd said before…we wanted to keep the main color gender neutral so when we find out the gender of our sweet bundle of joy all we have to do is add accent color!! So, take a look at the room so far (of course we will replace the twin bed with the crib once we purchase it).

Dan built the built-in cabinets (the bottom portion will have doors and he is currently working on finishing the shelves), the board & batten, aka wainscoating which has a 4 inch shelf instead of the typical chair rail (we also place the shelf higher than a normal chair rail), and the crown molding (which we copied this idea from a friend – we placed the molding about 2 inches below the ceiling and then place dimmable rope lighting inside for ambiance and a "night light"). I did all the painting…which included base color, measuring, drawing and taping off all the lines and the touch-up (which is not fun).

4th Status Update

Guess what....We're still waiting.....
When will it end?!? Hopefully soon!! =0)

Status Update: 1/12 ~ Kelly - Hasn't chosen a family yet; 1/12 ~ Angela - We were her 3rd choice; 1/17 ~ Julie - Chosen family & in the process of being matched; 1/28 ~ Autumn - Hasn't chosen a family yet; 1/28 ~ Gina - Matched with a family
AdoptHelp sent out all of our profiles, which means we were possible matches to 30 birthmoms. We contacted our printing company to print 15 more profiles to send to AdoptHelp for potential matches (hopefully we won't need to print anymore).
We have also been added to another adoption website for more exposure. Check it out:
www.adoptionplanners.com/choosefamily3.php?id=195

We are still waiting to have our home study approved. Other than that, that is all I have to report on the Adoption front....

~ HUGS & LUVS ~

Feelings & tissues

So Dan and I are getting a little impatient. It's been a month and a half since the last time we were picked and even though we've only been selected twice, the timeframe between them was about a month. I keep hoping that today is the day we get the call....We're still waiting.....

Well, as I was looking through some other adoption bogs I came across this video. It is so completely moving and oh so TRUE to most of the feelings I have been through or are going through.

**Warning: If you chose to watch this video, please do so with a box of tissues**

4th Status Update

Well, we just received our 4th status update (for the month of Dec) and we are still getting a good amount of interest so...YAY!!

Here's our status update:
12/2 - Amber: hasn't chosen a family; 12/2 - Erin: hasn't chosen a family; 12/2 - Diane: hasn't chosen a family; 12/3 - Elaine: hasn't chosen a family; 12/14 - Leonore: "has fallen off the radar"; 12/30 - Stacey: matched with a family

Although we are bummed that we are still waiting, I keep reminding myself (along with my mother, Miss Vicki) that it will happen when the universe deems it right....Miss Vicki has been a great sounding board through this experience. I love the way her face (and my dad's face) lights up when they talk about my adoption story....they were out of town and "back then" there were no cell phones so they were out of touch, finally they were reached and overjoyed. My parents tell me that adoption was so different back then....they got to see me right after I was born and then had to WAIT THREE MONTHS until I could come home to them...talk about learning the value of patience...LOL!! Well, as mom and dad remind me of my adoption story, I look at Dan and I and think....WE CAN DO THIS!!

I know I say it in about every post I post BUT....THANK YOU so much for being so supportive in our journey to our family!!