Saturday, June 23, 2012

Our Journey. (Part 2)


The Meeting:
So meeting day comes and it was PERFECT. :) T (the birthmom) and L (the birth grandmother) are wonderful people. We are definitely blessed. 
I am going to do my best at describing how the meeting went. But we met for 2.5 hours and a LOT was said. So this is definitely just going to be the gist of it. 

So Gerald and I pull up to the place and we get out and go the bathroom. As we are walking out T and her Mom walk in. They immiediately recognize us from our pictures. I assume that it is them and I look at T and I say “Are you T?” She said “I sure am.” So I immediately went to her and gave her a hug and told her how excited I was to meet her. I then turned to her mom L and gave her a hug a too! She said that she was so happy to meet us and I told her the same. Then Gerald gave hugs. 

C, the caseworker, wasn’t there yet b/c we were all about 30 minutes early. LOL. So we just go and sit in the waiting room and we all start chatting. It was small talk like oh your boots are cute and oh I love you earrings and stuff like that. We were joking and kidding around and laughing and just talking like we had known each other. It felt easy. 

C arrived and was surprised to see us all already meeting. We got a good laugh about it and we moved on into the meeting room. It was a nice cozy room with couches and such. Then L started off by saying that they had looked at over 20 profiles and every profile was a no. They started to get worried that they would never find a family. At first they had originally wanted an AA (African American) family to raise him, but there weren’t many AA in the mix and then they realized that they just wanted a family that would love him and raise him in a Christian home. So they look at several profiles and they don’t like any of them. So C starts calling around to other agencies and ours was one of them. So we tell them yes to send our profile. L saw our profile first. She said the first thing that caught her eye was our beauty and our eyes! She said “Lord please let their inner beauty match their outer beauty.” So then she started reading our profile and said that it was like I was speaking to her…not her reading a letter. She said that she could FEEL our hearts through the page. She immediately asked T to come to the computer and read. So she did. T said “Wow Mom, they are BEAUTIFUL!” and L said “I know and just wait to you read this.” So T read it and they both had tears in their eyes. There was another couple that they liked as well. They said their profile wasn’t as strong as ours but she felt that she had to meet them and us before making the decision. They were an AA couple and they met with them Friday night, the night before our meeting. She said the meeting didn’t feel right. She said they didn’t seem to like the idea of an open adoption. They were also talking about moving back to Chicago and other things that. She said there were 4 red flags. I have no idea what the other 2 were. 

We went on to tell her that we would LOVE an open adoption and prayed for one. We told her we felt it was important for a child to know their birth mother. She started crying b/c she NEEDED to hear that. She said she felt the other family was going to take off and she would never hear from them again. I told her that would never happen with us. Even though we would be his parents she would still and forever be his birth mom. L said “Thank you, that is what my daughter needed to hear.” It was a really special moment. 

They asked us a lot of questions and we answered openly and honestly. They really respected our answers and even said that we answered every single one of them perfectly. About an hour into the meeting T said “I know you are my sons parents. I feel SO at peace with the decision and I love you both so much I would be so happy if you raised my son.” I burst into tears and told her thank you from the bottom of my heart. I told her that this meant the world to us and that we would be honored to raise her son. I then went on to explain how she would just be an extended part of our family and her and L started crying and saying how much they would love that. They just kept telling us over and over how beautiful we were on the inside and out and how amazed they are that God led us to them. It was just an amazing meeting. Simply amazing. We felt so at ease and at peace the entire time! 
We then discussed what we would name him. T and L already had a name picked out and so did we. T and L had chosed Elijah Isaiah and we had chosen Zaden James. So we chose the name of Zaden Elijah together. It was a great moment. 

We ended the meeting with hugs and tears and prayer. It was just a beautiful moment. We exchanged names and information.

Sunday, the next morning I got a call from L while we were in church and she left a voice mail saying how she was up all night thanking and praising Jesus for us. She said she couldn’t believe how blessed they were to end up with us. She said that T went to bed and rested peacefully for the first time in 8 months and that she had a smile on her face that she hadn’t seen in a really long time. It was a beautiful message.
We continued to text and talk almost daily. We got really close to one another. It was wonderful! We felt peace about the entire process. A peace that we hadn't felt before. It was God. We knew this was the one. 

A couple of weeks later (2 weeks before T was due) T and L met us in Waco for lunch in which my parents and Geralds parents attended. It was a great lunch! It lasted almost 4 hours! We just talked and talked and talked. All of our family got along so well!!

Soon after that we discussed a hospital plan and the entrustment ceremony. It was becoming more and more real!!

On March 19, T called to tell me the good news! She was going to have a c-section the next morning! EEK! WOO HOO!! So we decided to pack and leave that afternoon and head to Dallas. We were going to go to the Olive Garden and have dinner with T and L before the big day. So we are on our way when I get a text from T saying that her water broke!!! She called her doc and they told her to come in. So we get to Dallas and check into our hotel and head straight to Labor and Delivery to see T. We get there and T is doing great and in no pain. She looks beautiful. We hang out until it is time. 

Our son Zaden was born on March 19, 2012 and 9:45PM and he was 7lbs 150z and 19in long. He is absolutely perfect!!!

We were with T every day at the hospital until it was time to take our son home. It was a very long and emotional week. Beautiful and hard all the same time. Very bitter sweet I guess you could say. 

We took our son home 3/23/12. It was a great day! Z is now 3 months old and the most joyful beautiful child. We are SO very blessed. God is SO good and knew exactly what He was doing the entire time. Zaden was supposed to be our child. Going through all the disappointment led us to him. Our journey, was bumpy and beautiful. :)

Always trust God...He will never let you down.  



Our beautiful family...









3 comments:

  1. L.O.V.E. it!! I still think it is crazy that you were placed through our FIRST adoption agency :-) in Dallas. It will be fun seeing you at both adoption agency picnics!! I giggled when I knew who you were talking about for caseworker "C". Funny :-) Can't wait to meet you guys in a week or so at the Generations picnic . . .you better be there ;-)

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    1. It is such a small world!! I think it is SO neat too!!! I can't wait to finally meet you in person! Yes, we will definitely be at the picnic! Super excited about it!! :)

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  2. My beautiful and brilliant sweet sweet child, how I love you! How I love the journey that you and Gerald have been on! How I love the way that you have shared this journey. How I love the way that you (we all) have REALLY learned so much about TRUSTING GOD, HOLDING ONTO FAITH, NOT QUITTING WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, BELIEVING IN HIS PROMISES! Wow! Such LIFE LONG LESSONS for us. I am so proud of you, and the way your kept your faith, kept believing and trusting our God. How you didn't give up, how you didn't listen to those of us who said "take a break" but rather you listened and obeyed God and His direction, His timing! Such an amazing journey to Zaden!!!! WE ARE BLESSED BECAUSE OF HIM!! HOW I LOVE HIM!!! He is perfect and precious and priceless and I am his Lolli! How I LOVE this road, this blessed and bumpy road, because this road led us to Zaden!! Some journey's take a little longer than others and when that happens we have truly learned there are invaluable lessons that God wants to not only teach us but bless us with!

    Bumps, Beauty and Unending Blessings,
    Mom (Lolli)

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