God is so good! Praise the Lord!

Our attorney met with the birthmom today. Can you believe its already been 72 hours? The birthmom signed all the paperwork. We are in awe. God is so amazingly good. We give Him all the glory. Thank You, Jesus!

Details, details...

Okay, everyone....we won't hold you in suspense any longer. Its been an incredible couple of days. We arrived at the hospital on Friday night around 6:00 p.m. At that point, the doctor gave the birthmom Cervadel to try to jump start her into labor. Well, approximately 20 hours later, she had only dilated 1 centimeter more! She was pretty miserable. However, at about 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, the doctor checked her again and told us that he expected that Kiara would be delivered about an hour and a half later. Kiara was born at 4:38 p.m.!

We were able to be in the delivery room the whole time. It was an amazing experience that we praise God for allowing us to be a part of. Labor went very quickly and smoothly.

Heather notes: As I left the delivery room, my eyes briefly caught with the birthmom's. With tears streaming down my face, I mouthed, "She's beautiful." She whispered, "Thank you. It was a bittersweet moment for me - my heart was so overflooded with joy of being "Mom" to this beautiful little girl but it also ached for this young mother that just wanted the best thing for her baby. I am beyond amazed that through God's awesome grace and goodness, she choose us as the best choice for this baby.

At that point, we went directly next door to our room where the nurse had taken Kiara to examine her and clean her up. The nurse was so sweet and encouraged us to touch her and talk to her. After she took Kiara's footprints, she took Ryan's arm, stamped her footprint on it, and said, "Little girls walk all over Daddy's hearts." Ryan agrees. :) She is healthy and strong, passing all tests with flying colors. We then had the opportunity to bond with her for about an hour before she had to go to the nursery for some tests.

Since then, Kiara has been with us in our room. It has been so sweet to care for her and to enjoy bonding with her in these early moments. We love every part of her. She has a cute little button nose and abundant amount of beautiful dark hair.

Ryan says: In the first 24 hours of her life, she has sneezed exactly 38 times!

The birthmom has held her a couple of times since Kiara was born and it seems to have brought some closure for her. She signed the short-term guardianship forms with no problems and left the hospital this morning. If all goes as planned, we will take Kiara home tomorrow morning and the birthmom will sign all other forms on Tuesday around 5:00 p.m. at which point, her parental rights will be terminated and we will receive temporary guardianship until the adoption is finalized.

Thank you so much for all your prayers. We are blessed beyond anything we could have possibly imagined. Praise God for His excellent mercy - we don't deserve to be so blesed - its only by His goodness! Please continue to pray for the birthmom - pray that she will find peace and purpose in the only One she can - Jesus Christ. And, please continue to pray that we will desire and accept God's perfect plan. We love you all and look forward to continuing this blog!

Introducing...

Kiara Joy

6 pounds, 8 ounces

20 inches long

Everyone is healthy. We'll be updating with details soon. Love you all.

Wow...

Ok, we kinda knew this yesterday but it wasn't certain yet so we didn't share it. In the state of Illinois, there is something called short-term guardianship that allows an adoptive child to be released to her adoptive parents as soon as she is permitted to leave the hospital. Which, in our case, means that IF the birthmom goes into labor and delivers tomorrow, Kiara could be home with us as early as SUNDAY!!! And, the birthmom has agreed to consent to giving us short-term guardianship until her paperwork is signed.

We still need to keep in mind that the birthmom cannot sign paperwork until 72 hours after birth. So, there is still a period of time that she could change her mind. With that said, at this point, we have no reason to believe that she will do so - but things change sometimes. We know God's plan is perfect - there will be no surprises for Him. That's a comforting thought!

Our attorney has asked that no one come to the hospital for the birthmom's and our protection. If everything goes as planned, we're sure we will be seeing many of you over the next few weeks.

So, since we'll be camping out at the hospital for the next couple of days, we probably won't be updating much. Please continue to pray. We love you all!

Here we go...

Heather writes: Well, I made it to the doctor's appointment this morning - with 30 extra minutes to spare! :) The birthmom seemed at ease and really accepted my presence.

I heard the most beautiful sound this morning - Kiara Joy's heartbeat! She is healthy and strong. The birthmom had an ultrasound this morning. We didn't ever get a good view of her because of where she is positioned. But, below is a little sneak peak of her arm!

The doctor said that the birthmom hasn't really dilated too much from last week. But, she is adamant about being induced. She says she's ready to be able to put this behind her. It was for this reason that the doctor ordered an ultrasound to make certain Kiara is healthy and ready for delivery. The birthmom is being admitted to the hospital tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. At that point, the doctor's goal is to get her to dilate more in hopes that once she does, she will go into labor on her own. We are expecting that a baby will most likely be born this weekend!




From the both of us: What an amazing couple of weeks! We are in awe of the orchestration of our great, awesome God!

From the beginning, we have tried to guard our hearts, not get too emotionally involved for fear that Kiara Joy won't be ours. But, we have learned that that was impossible. We have never met this beautiful little girl but we are hopelessly and completely in love with her. We know that things may not turn out as we plan but we take hope in that our sovereign God's plan is perfect. Regardless of the outcome, we give Him absolute praise for the work He has done in our lives throughout the last couple of weeks and for the opportunity He has given us to love a family in need.

We don't talk about our infertility much because of the pain that comes of thinking of it. God knew we needed this "detour" (at least, that's how we look at it in our humanness) to grow us, bring us closer to Him, and begin breaking our self-sufficiency. We're asking you, our dear friends, to remind us that our lives are meant only to bring HIM glory in whatever happens in the weeks, months, and years to come.

Please continue to pray for our birthmom. She has a need for a Savior and doesn't even recognize it yet. Please pray that God will open her heart. Pray for her - as she goes into labor, for a healthy delivery. Pray for her hurting heart. Pray for a healthy Kiara Joy.

And please pray for us - that our will will be that God's will is done.
We love you all so much! Thank you for your overwhelming support! We'll update as soon as possible.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock. ~ Isaiah 26:3-4

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. ~ Psalm 19:14

But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." ~ Psalm 31:14

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ~ Romans 11:33

Waiting Game...

Not much has happened or changed in the last 24 hours. The birthmom called our attorney this morning just to kinda check in...that's a good sign. And yesterday, she confirmed with her doctor that she was still firm of the adoption plan.

Please pray for her over this weekend and upcoming week. We can't imagine the anxiety she must be feeling as she waits for this baby girl to be born. Please pray that she will be able to rest this weekend. Also, pray for her spirituality. She has a need for Jesus Christ in her life. Pray that she will long to know the One who can give her new life.

We probably won't be updating too much in the next week. God has a perfect plan and purpose for us in this situation. We're just trying to rest in Him.

We'll let you know if anything happens or changes. Love you all! Thank you for your prayers!

Doctor's Appointment

Heather writes: Ugh, I missed the appointment! Even though I was there early, the doctor must not have had any other patients at the time, because as I was walking in, our birthmom was walking out! Oh well - God knows best!

The baby is still high so the doctor is not going to induce right now. The birthmom has another appointment next Thursday at 10:30 a.m.. Guess who is gonna be there at 10:00??? :)

So we wait...keep praying!

Quick Update

We don't have too much of an update. Heather went with her attorney to court this morning to do some complicated legal stuff that we probably couldn't explain if we wanted to! Guess its a good thing we trust our lawyer so much!! :) Heather has been invited by the birthmom to join her for her doctor's appointment on Thursday. The birthmom reallys want to be induced - she will be 38 weeks on Thursday. We're not sure what the doctor will do - guess we'll all just have to wait and see! Anyways, thank you all so much for praying!

Birthmom

We met the birthmom for the first time tonight. Its hard to put into words what we experienced. We have mixed emotions. On the one hand, we are so overjoyed at the possibility of calling this baby girl our own, our baby...on the other, we are sad and even heavy-hearted because of the situation of the birthmom.

It was a very emotional time for us. The birthmom got teary-eyed almost as soon as she sat down at the table. She told us more times than we can count how thankful she was that we were going to take care of her baby. She was at her wit's end and she almost feels relieved now, knowing that that baby girl is going to be safe. She knows this is going to be hard and at this point, I think she's just ready for it to be behind her.

She kept saying that she wanted to start fresh - start a new life. She thinks things are going to better for her if she could only get a job, find a house, move out of this area, etc. Its sad because we know that the only One who can give her new life is Jesus Christ and she doesn't know that yet.

Heather writes: Before we left, I told her that all of you are such a great support and encouragement to us. I told her that you were all so excited for us at the possibility of having a baby. But, I also told her that we realize this is really difficult for her and that we are all praying for her. She gave us a couple of outfits that she had bought for Kiara: a Bulls cheerleader outfit and an Eeyore shorts set. I asked her if I could hug her. That was probably one of the most emotional moments of my life - having the possible birthmother of our baby clutch me that tightly sobbing. I am so thankful she chose life.

So, please, as you spend time with our Lord over the next few days, lift this young lady up in prayer. Please pray that God will use the people around her to point her to the only One who can give her the new life she longs for.

Kiara Joy

We forget to share the significance of the name Kiara Joy. When we heard that the baby was bi-racial, we decided it would be special to give her an African American middle name to celebrate that. The only name that we came across that we both liked was Kiara. Well, when we met with our attorney Friday evening, we discovered that our birthmom had been calling the baby "Kiara". Right then, we knew that we would keep that name. The name "Kiara" means "beautiful river." So, we figure "Kiara Joy" means "beautiful river of joy."

Let's start at the very beginning....

We started this blog because all of you, our dear friends and family, are as anxious as we are to be updated on every little detail of this hopeful adoption. So, for those of you who haven't been able to hear the "long version" yet, we'll start at the beginning.

Heather received a phone call from a family friend on Thursday afternoon, which happened to also be Ryan's first day at Airfloat. This friend's husband, who is a doctor, is treating a young woman who is 37 weeks pregnant and wanting to put her baby up for adoption. Her due date is May 1 but the doctor wonders if she might go into labor early. She is unemployed, without a home, and already has a six year old child that she is trying to provide for. And, the baby is bi-racial. Her family has been concerned about a bi-racial child in their home. After speaking with both an attorney and an adoption agency, we decided to pursue a private adoption which was also the preference of the birthmother. Our attorney, Kirstin, met with our birthmom on Friday afternoon. She seems very mature and has thoroughly thought this adoption plan out. We are hopeful. We have been reminded that even up to 72 hours after the baby's birth, our birthmom may change her mind. Our hearts cry for her; she is making such a difficult decision and without Christ to comfort and sustain her.

This has been such a whirlwind of a last few days. Will you pray with us? Please pray for the birthmother - that she might see Christ reflected in us as we interact with her - that through this relationship, she might turn her life fully over to Christ. And, please pray for us that we will lean on God and trust in His perfect plan.

We love you all and we will keep this blog updated as often as possible. Thank you for your prayers!