just the beginning...

I cant believe I’m sitting in my living room with the most precious little boy swinging & sleeping in a graco swing. I still have moments of unbelief. We made it! We are parents. We have a SON!! And he is perfect.

I wish you all could’ve been with us every minute of the past couple weeks. It has been a WILD, exciting ride! I’m sure there will be hundreds of details that I leave out…but I’ll fill those in later (if I think of them.)

Let’s back up to the week after Christmas. We got an email about a baby…

I remember getting the email like it was yesterday. The subject line read: ¾ caucasian ¼ Hispanic baby boy born 12/14. It had pictures attached. I JUMPED up off of the couch and went to the bathroom (jay was showering) to tell him about it. We’d gotten pretty good at staying calm when receiving these emails but the pictures just made this one feel special.

I remember sending a reply saying we were ABSOLUTELY interested 3 times. I didn’t mean to send it 3 times…

We asked them to show our profile to the birthmom and then waited. Story of adoption – hurry up!! And wait…

We sent the email on a friday I believe. We knew they wouldn’t show profiles for several days. I’m pretty sure we broke the rules and asked some other situations to show our profile during this time. We kinda had this “what are the odds we’ll get picked” attitude.

Fast forward (not fair that you can do that b/c those days of waiting were LONG!) to Wednesday. We were told that our profile would be shown on Thursday and hopefully we’d hear something by Friday. So when I saw a missed call on my phone that Wednesday night I certainly didn’t expect it to be from the adoption agency.

I listened to the voicemail. I even asked jay if he’d return the call because I was “tired of being rejected.” He wouldn’t do it. PUNK.

So I dialed the number, took a deep breath and waited to be told no.

The counselor & I chatted for a few minutes and then she said that they’d shown the birthmom the profiles earlier that day (another deep breath…) and to their surprise she’d already made a choice. Then she said my favorite words: “she chose y’all.”

WHAT?! WHAT?! I said NO WAY?!!!! Jay hit the floor with the most surprised look on his face. I just kept saying, really? She chose us?!

The counselor said that she told the birthmom that we were a really nice couple and that she’d worked with us in the past. The birthmom called back with her choice and said, “you know the couple you mentioned jay and kaci…they are perfect.” HOW SWEET!

The counselor said a million things after telling us we were chosen but heck if I know what she said. We hung up and looked at each other in complete shock.

We hugged, said a quick THANK YOU prayer and started making calls…

Of course I called my mom first. She flipped. Next I called josh & Claire and jays family. I think we talked on the phone for 2 hours that night.

I took Tylenol pm and went to bed.

Jay smiled, made phone calls and cried the rest of the night.

After being chosen we had to wait a week or so (oh, it was HARD!) for medical records to be released so we could head to texas.

THANKFULLY during this time we got to email back & forth with Gabe’s amazing, godly, heaven-sent foster parents. They are truly called by God…I cannot say enough about this couple!!!

We went back and forth on how we’d get there, etc. we spent that week cleaning, nesting, buying baby stuff, registering, etc and hoping for the call! We also spent this week putting away TONS of clothes, gifts, a car seat, stroller, swing, bouncer, toys, etc. that friends & family BLESSED us with. i'll never get over how much we were (and are being) loved on...

We finally got a call that we needed to be in Houston on Monday, January 16 to have lunch with the birthmom. Then in dallas on Tuesday to pick up Gabe and finish the paperwork.

we left Sunday, January 15 at 11am and drove all the way to Houston with my parents! The trip didn’t even seem long. We stopped a lot for snack breaks. We stopped for lunch and supper. (ps – we ate at a place right by LSU’s campus. So I yelled ROLL TIDE out the window to some LSU students.)

I sang tons of songs loudly along with itunes to keep the car entertained. We also gave Gabe a middle name on the trip. We decided on Wyatt b/c it means “brave” just like Kaci and he’s from texas!

Monday morning was kindof a blur. We were a little nervous about meeting the birthmom. We met at a Mexican place along with our adoption counselor. I LOVE LOVE LOVE gabe’s mom. She is so sweet. She was kinda quiet at lunch but we learned enough about her to know she’s bright, loving and only wants the best for gabe.

We laughed a lot. We gave her a “love box” (read older blogs for love box details!) with notes from us and our families, picture frames for future pics of gabe, coffee mug, a sweet baby boy looking cross, etc. we told her we wanted to fill her love box for years to come with notes & gifts from us & gabe. She loved it.

We left lunch and headed to Dallas. We checked into a FABULOUS place that my brother found for us and went out to dinner. MAN did we eat good in Texas!!!!

I don’t really know how we slept at all that night but we did. we got up the next morning and got ourselves ready to meet our SON. (how do you get ready for that?!)

We arrived at the agency, signed lots of paperwork, met his precious foster mom and FINALLY met Gabe! My mom got a glimpse of him before we did. she wasn’t supposed to but she did. she cried.

They had a sweet ceremony and said lots of stuff (I’m sure it was sweet) before handing gabe to us but I have no idea what they said. I was just waiting for that sweet little guy to be in my ARMS FOREVER!!!!!!!!

I loved him the minute I laid eyes on him. I mean LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. Jay did too of course.

We went back to our place and introduced him to poppy. Then went out for lunch to celebrate!

The rest of our time in dallas was full of diapers, bottles, smiles, tears, joy, GREAT FOOD and even a visit from our friends that live in Austin. What a great treat!

There’s SOOOOOOOOOOOO much more to tell….forgive me for stopping here. But my heart (over there in that graco swing) is about to be hungry.

For now you can know – GOD is good. He’s faithful. He’s completely in control and He deserves all the glory. We have already given this sweet boy back to Him and desire to raise him to in a way that delights God.