Friday, September 27, 2013

Worth the Wait!

You spend  your whole life waiting on something. That "something" seems to change right along with life as you grow older.  Waiting is just a natural and necessary means to a conclusion.  Particularly In the last few months I've come to appreciate the "waiting" process as I've been able to see it from a different perspective.

We had our second home study back in early July.  Naturally we were apprehensive leading up to the visit but there were some clear differences in the preparation between the first one and this one.  While the first one took weeks of cleaning, organizing, and mentally preparing for, this past one not so much. I woke up, looked at David and said, "oh yeah, our social worker will be here in a few hours... maybe we should vacuum?!?!"  It was a good visit, not much new to report, but we talked about our desire to look into international adoption.  We figured the domestic adoption was taking so long, we could handle the rumored "lengthy" international route if that was what God was calling us to do.  Before our social worker left, I joked with her, guess we'll hear some good news from you next week right?

Oddly enough, we did hear some good news a few short weeks after our second home study was complete!  It was the news we had waited so long to hear; but we had heard similar news before that didn't lead us to the conclusion we had wanted. So when we heard another expectant mother had chosen us, we had our guards up.  Those guards quickly began to crumble as we found out more and more about the situation and became absolutely in awe of the precious expectant mother.   She had chosen us after looking through the "big book" of countless deserving families one page descriptions accompanied by a photo.  She kept coming back to ours and finally asked if there was any Hispanic connection... I'm not sure how she knew, but when she learned that my father is Hispanic she told our social worker, they are the ones! She too has a Hispanic parent and lives with them in Guatemala.  Her other American parent allows her to have dual citizenship and have the baby here in the States. When I got the call, tears streamed down my face and a feeling I've never felt before made my heart want to burst outside my chest.  I couldn't wait to call David, I knew his answer would be yes just as instantly as mine.  We had just opened our hearts to the idea of an international adoption and here we were with an international baby placed in the "domestic adoption package" here practically in our own back yard! God couldn't be anymore all over this!

As ecstatic as we were, the last failed situation still left some lingering doubt.  We only shared the news with family and we continued the wait. The wait to see if this was really it, the one God planned just for us! We learned more about the birth mother during this wait and for her protection, I won't share too many details.  But we are blessed to know her as a courageous and amazing young woman! She sent us a special package with a heartfelt letter, little outfit, and a picture of the ultrasound letting us know it's a Boy!  Her thoughtfulness meant so much more to us than can really be described.  It gave us hope and allowed us to overcome that lingering doubt.  It was another sign from God that this was it, an answer to so many prayers that our wait would soon be over.  

A few days before the due date, we got a phone call from David's parents that his grandmother most likely wouldn't make it through the weekend.  We had one loved one going and another coming... it seemed impossible timing! We had just heard that our expectant mother was only 1 cm dilated and most likely wouldn't deliver on time, so we dropped everything (I can't even begin to tell you how many things that "everything" encompassed.... It was quite possibly the busiest weekend in the entire year) and headed to the only place that made sense. We headed in the opposite direction from where our sweet baby was to be delivered any day now, to be with family and say goodbye to an amazing woman, praying God would work out all the timing.  When we got there we found ourselves waiting on something very different. Now we were waiting for our dynamically beautiful grandmother to pass peacefully and comfortably, surrounded by family from all over the States.  She took her last breath Sunday, two days after we had gotten there and two days after the due date.  Monday morning we got the news that our birth mother would be induced on Wednesday.  Amazingly enough the funeral was able to be organized and scheduled for Tuesday morning.  God literally timed and orchestrated every minuet to work out perfectly. As anxious as we were for baby to make his debut, his late arrival was such a blessing as it allowed us to be able to be with family.

When we got back home, we began a new wait.  One that was much harder than I expected. We got news that he was born... a healthy 8 lb 9 oz little bundle. He and our now birth mother were doing great.  That was a huge relief and answer to prayer but we were dying to see him, hold him, kiss him, and take him home.  The next 48 hours slowly ticked by making every second seem like an eternity. I'm not sure how it is that two days of waiting were so much worse than the two years of waiting on this little guy!
Finally Friday came and after not much sleep at all we were off to meet our little man! Well after about 30 min of trying to put the stubborn car seat in the car... That was obnoxiously complicated for us rookies! We were so curious what he would look like and had hours to .. There are not words that can describe the joy that filled our hearts seeing him for the first time. He's the most handsome little guy I've ever seen! Of course the whole way home I rode in the back just staring at him! We couldn't wait to get him home... And just in time for his first Carolina football game!! I mean priorities, right!! We are more than thrilled to introduce our sweet little gift from God...Hudson James...
Love at first sight!
Quick snack before we hit the road...


Ready to go home!
Home sweet home after a bottle and a good swaddle!