One year ago today..

One year ago today we got a phone that would change our lives...

the caseworker on the other end of the call told us

a mother expecting a little boy choose us to be his parents.

Since I have not told the story of how Andrew came to our family I thought I would do that today.

I had difficult pregnancies with both Megan and Tyler. After Tyler was born our doctor advised us not to get pregnant again. Tyler's pregnancy was a pretty scary pregnancy and was really hard on my body. So, Austin and I thought about what our Doctor said and we decided that he was right and we should not get pregnant again, however, I knew there was still another child that was supposed to be in about family.

When Tyler was about 4 years old we started to look into adoption and decided to go forward with it. We were able to get a homestudy done quickly and we were approved with an adoption agency in Dec. 2007. We were very excited about the possibility of having another baby in our home! Little did we know, we had a long wait ahead of us.

In late September 2009 we were still waiting for the phone call that would change our lives. In late September we decided that it was time to be more proactive in our adoption efforts and put our names out there more. I had a friend who recommended an agency that she used so we looked into them and decided to contact them and see what happens.

We were approved with the second agency by the end of the week and we were excited for what the possibilities could be with them. About 8 or 9 weeks later I was out shopping for groceries with Austin when my cell phone rang. It was our caseworker. She told us about a mom who was expecting a little boy and asked us if we were interested in them telling her about us. Of course we said yes! On December 3rd we got a phone call back from the caseworker telling us that she had picked us to be the parents to her baby boy due in just a few weeks.

We were beyond excited!

Over the next week I would get butterflies every time the phone rang, wondering if it was time to head to South Carolina to meet this special lady and her baby boy.

On Dec. 10th at just after 3:00 the call came saying she was headed to the hospital.

I called Austin at work and told him to come home and help me get packed.

The only thing I had packed was the baby's suitcase so there was a lot to do in just a couple hours before we left for the airport. In about 4 hours I had a quick load of laundry done, we were packed, had grandma pick up Megan and Tyler and take them to her house, bought plane tickets, called family members to let them know we were leaving, stopped and grabbed some dinner and hit the road to Utah to catch a plane to South Carolina.

Before we were even out of Idaho we got another call from our caseworker telling us Andrew was born and both mom and baby we healthy and doing well. It all still felt like a dream and I was still really nervous to meet his birthmom and I hoped she liked us.

We took a 12am flight to SC and flew threw the night. I thought I would be able to sleep on the plane, but yeah right, what was I thinking? I slept for maybe 15 minutes. We arrived in Charlotte, NC at about 8am and then rented a car so we could drive about 3 hours to Charleston, SC. When we arrived in Charleston we called our caseworker and he said he would be about 2 hours before he would be able to be at the hospital (he was in Charlotte that day but was on his way) so we decided to find the hospital and wait for him there.

Once we found the hospital we decided to go do a little baby shopping. We decided to buy a carseat once we got there so we would not have to worry about bringing it on the airplane for the ride there. While we were at the store our caseworker called and said he was at the hospital and meeting with our birthmom in a few minutes. He told us to finish up our shopping and then head back to the hospital and we could meet her when he was done talking with her. We got back to the hospital and waited for awhile longer while they did the paperwork needed.

At about 6 or 7 that night we were finally able to meet her! The nurse asked us if we wanted to see our baby or meet his birthmom first (she had decided to sign the papers before she met us so at this time we could officially say he was our baby!). I immediately said I wanted to meet her first. I had been waiting all day to see our baby, but I had also been waiting just as anxiously to meet her too!

The caseworker and nurse took us to meet Andrew's birthmom and we were able to visit with her for about 15 minutes or so. She was shy and quiet and so was I. I remember telling her thank you for what she was doing and her response was "Thank you for having him. I was not sure I would find someone to be able to take care of him." What?! Here she was giving us something we could no longer give each other and she was tell US thank you?! I loved her since the minute I saw her beautiful face (well probably before that even, it's just hard to explain unless you have experienced adoption). After we had been in her room for about 15 minutes she asked us if we had seen him yet and I told her "Not yet, I wanted to meet you first" she said, "Well, you can go see him now." I felt torn between just wanting to be in the same room as her and wanting to see our new baby son, (Andrew's birthmom decided that she wanted Andrew in the hospital nursery rather than in her room until we had arrived and then we were able to have him in a room with us until he was discharged), but I had given our caseworker our phone number, email, and blog address to pass on her to so I was hoping we would be able to get to know her more in the future and I am happy to say that we have! I am so glad we are able to stay in contact and I am glad I will be able to tell Andrew about his sweet birthmom when he is older and I have been able to share updates and pictures of Andrew with his birthmom.

After we left her room we were taken to the hospital nursery where the nurse bought us to Andrew's little bed. He was bundled up tight and seemed so little. All of the nurses in the nursery we were looking at us and I am sure wanting to see us hold our baby for the first time but I got a little shy and asked if we could take Andrew back to our room (the hospital gave us a room to stay in until Andrew was discharged) and she said we could. We wheeled Andrew back to our room, closed the door, and then I finally picked my baby up held him and smiled. I could not stop looking at his cute little face and his beautiful full head of hair. I loved him!

We kept Andrew in our room while we were signing our paperwork and I held him while we signed. I loved changing his diaper for the first time and feeding him a bottle for the first and just holding him! He made the last 2 years of emotional ups and downs that came with waiting to adopt all worth it. I would do it again and again for him.

After we had signed the paperwork and our caseworker had gone home for the night we decided to have Andrew sleep in the nursery that night. I really wanted him to stay in the room with us, but we had been up for the last 35 hours and we were both so exhausted we really needed to get at least a little sleep before we were able to have Andrew discharged the next morning. Early the next morning a nurse bought Andrew back into us and we were able to keep him with us from then on. What a joy he has been and we cannot imagine life without him now!

I am so glad we hung in there and we were able to adopt Andrew.

People have asked if we will adopt again and my answer to that is, we don't know.

We certainly have not closed the door to adopting again and if an opportunity comes along we would absolutely consider it. For right now we are just enjoying having Andrew in our family and loving it!

A family of 5 seems good but the thought of another little one joining our family seems lovely too!

So we will see what the future holds...