Six Months Ago…

 Our daughter Ivy was born six months ago today.

We adopted Ivy domestically at birth. I thought I would revisit our adoption story of Ivy via some pictures and memories, since I didn’t have a blog or place to document all of it when it was happening!

The story actually starts about a year ago. In March of 2010, we decided to adopt, and it took us about three months to get all of our applications, profiles, paperwork, and home study done. All of our documents were finally totally finished and we were officially on the agencies’ waiting lists on June 11, 2010. On June 23, only 12 days later, Matthew and Elena (Ivy’s birthparents) walked into our adoption agency, saw our profile laying on our adoption specialist’s desk (she had it out because I had just emailed her, asking her a question about it), and immediately said they wanted us to adopt their baby. Our adoption specialist made them take a couple other profiles home with them and think about it, but they came back to her the next day saying they wanted us. She called us and told us the situation, we prayed about it, and said an emphatic “yes!” the next day!

“The Call” picture—sort of like a positive pregnancy test picture :)

Matthew and Elena’s only “stipulation” in choosing us was that they wanted to meet us before the birth. So in July, Aaron and I headed down to Florida to meet them. We instantly fell in love with them, and we all had a great time together!

About three months later, in October, it was about a week before Elena’s due date.  I didn’t want to miss the birth, so I headed back down to Florida with my mom and sister, while Aaron kept working here at home. He was planning on coming down when Elena went into labor.

It was very sad to part ways.

But we were also very happy and excited!

 

The first day my mom, Rachel, and I got there, Elena started having contractions. But it turns out you can have contractions for a long, long, long time and not go into labor. Something I didn’t know before! So we had a really fun--but kind of nerve-wracking--week of going to the beach,

visiting frozen yogurt bars,

playing cards in the lobby,

eating amazing food,

and hanging out with Elena and her family,

(Daisy and Ivy's first picture together) :)

 all while Elena continued to have contractions and say that "this could be the day" every day!

After about a week, Rachel had to fly back home, and I was missing Aaron SO MUCH. I’m sure my mom can attest to this. I probably wasn’t the best company for a couple of days there. There was no end in sight to Elena’s pregnancy it seemed, and I didn’t know how much longer I could survive without Aaron! (Thanks for putting up with me, Mom! You're the best!)

Luckily, Aaron was missing me too, and he decided that he couldn’t wait until Elena went into labor. He flew down (that’s a whole other story…took him about 15 hours because of many various mishaps) and surprised me! And let me tell you, I was extremely, 100% shocked. It was such a great surprise :)

So my mom flew back home, and Aaron and I started waiting together. 

We spent a lot of time with Elena and her family, which was very fun! We hung out at her house, ate kumquats (off their tree) for the first time, went out for Mexican food, sat and talked at Starbucks, and played Guitar Hero with her little brothers.

Aaron was constantly threatening to scare Elena to put her into labor. I don’t think she appreciated that too much :)

Finally, after I had been in Florida for two weeks and Aaron had been there five days, Elena went into real labor. This is us driving to the birthing center at about 1:00 AM on November 7, 2010.

I was able to be with Elena the entire time she was in labor and delivery, which was such a blessing. I was able to witness the birth of our daughter Ivy at about 6:30 that morning. We named her Ivy Elena, and she was 8 lb. 14 oz. And eight days overdue!

We said a tearful goodbye to the birthfamily, and we were able to take Ivy back to our hotel room about four hours after she was born!

On the way back to the hotel, we had to stop and take a picture of this street sign that my sister Rachel had discovered a couple weeks earlier. It was only about a mile from our hotel!

For the next twelve days, we waited for paperwork to clear so that we could leave the state, and we were thrown into the role of first-time parents in a small hotel room.

It was challenging, 

tiring,

and a lot of fun!

We took Ivy to the beach,

to our favorite restaurant Carrabbas,

and out to the pool.

Finally, after I had been in Florida for 28 days, we got the “all clear” to leave. Ivy slept about 17 of the 18 hours it took to drive home!

We cannot begin to describe how thankful we are for God’s plan to give Ivy to us as our daughter, for Matthew and Elena’s selfless, mature decision to give her up, and for the 28 most memorable days of our lives.

We love you, Ivy Elena, and we are humbled and honored to be your parents!