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!