Here's the Story!

Hello everyone! Sorry I have been so slow in getting this up. Then again, the past week has been more insane than anything I could have imagined, but in a wonderful way! So, here is the story, I will try to be brief but let you know the details too! And there are many of you out there I will be calling soon anyway! (or call me, I am doing nothing!)

So, last I wrote on here we had just been "dumped" by the birthmother who we had an adoption plan with. Which I understand. It was her choice and I was okay with that fact. Anyway, we had a great, busy weekend (I will post about that soon too), with Sam, Megan, and Cory visiting.

Saturday night (the day after the initial adoption fallout), I got a call from our caseworker saying there was a birthmother who had already had her baby, in Detroit, who had not been satisfied with her adoption agency and had switched to LDS Family Services and was working with them. Her caseworker had found our profile and really liked it, so she wanted to get in touch with us to let us know about the situation and get to know us. We didn't really think too much about it, due to the other emotions we had at the time. We continued with our fun family weekend and then Sunday we did talk to that caseworker. She really liked us and said she was going to show our profile to the birthmom, who would be picking a couple the next day. This birthmom really wanted to find a family that would be musical. :)

So again, we didn't really think too much of it, we just figured we'd hear back eventually if anything came of it, though we weren't planning on it. Monday morning Collin went to practice and I taught lessons for 2 hours, and as soon as I got done teaching I noticed I had a message from our social worker and a text from Collin. I looked at the text and it said "Birthmom picked us, she will be calling to talk to you." All I could say was, "shut UP shut UP!!" (ask Cory--he was there!) Anyway, that was the beginning of an insane rest of the day. We had been planning to go snowboarding, but instead we had an hour-long conference call with our caseworker in Boise and our new caseworker in Detroit, figuring out the details. They said the birthmom wanted us to get there asap. We asked how much later in the week we could come, and he said "she wants you here now." So we got right on that!

The next 12 hours were spent making calls, packing, planning, getting details together, and all kinds of general craziness. Thank you so much to everyone who helped us out at the last minute! 24 hours after I got that text from Collin, we were at the Boise airport heading to Detroit!

So, on our flight to Phoenix then on to Detroit, we spent our time reading baby books, trying to decide on a name, and basically just trying to remind ourselves this was really happening.

We got to our hotel in Detroit about 2:30am Wednesday, although with the time change and our excitement/nervousness we didn't really care. We were up the next morning to get our rental car, and then we stopped at Target to buy about $200 worth of baby supplies (car seat included) on our way to the agency! I was so nervous.

We got to the agency about 10 minutes before our caseworker arrived with the baby. (She had been with a volunteer foster mom since she had been released from the hospital Monday) He brought her in, and we got the first peek at her! She was so perfect!

So we spent the next few hours signing tons of paperwork, cooing over her, watching videos, figuring out the carseat, and generally being super happy. The rest is history..... we have just been hanging around our hotel room since then trying to figure out how to be parents! :) Ashlyn is a super content baby so far, she is generally happy unless she is hungry or has a dirty diaper. We will hope that lasts! :) She even let us sleep through the night our first night; we had to wake her up twice to feed her!! What a nice present to us.

Collin actually flew back to Boise today, which was really sad and a really hard decision for us to make. But the outlook is that me and Ashlyn could be here for up to 2 weeks if the paperwork/legal things don't go through very fast. We are just waiting for the okay to leave the county with her. There is more legal that still has to happen, but it is going well so far! And Collin really hadn't had enough time to prepare to miss that much work, plus he was very torn about his responsibilities as wrestling coach with state being this weekend. We are hoping everything will go through fast so we can be together again very soon! My mom flew in today to stay with me (I bawled this morning as I realized I was alone hundreds of miles from home and anyone I know with a brand new baby! Thankfully moms save the day!) until either Collin comes back or we have the OK to leave.

And that is the story so far! Thanks to everyone for your prayers and thoughts. It is beyond amazing to us how things like this work out. I guess you really just never know what to expect, although we knew what to hope and pray for. We love Ashlyn so much already, and it has been so fun and weird adjusting to being a mom and dad! (that sounds WEIRD!) Love you all!

And here are a few of my fave pics so far.... First family picture, when we picked her up!
Ashlyn's first bath!

Hanging out with dad!

I actually happened to catch a smile! Lucky me!


By the way, her birthday was February 17th. She is 8 days old now! More to come later!