Our sweet little Anna

Last November I got a message from our caseworker wanting us to call her back.  It hadn't been all that long since I had talked to her so I had a feeling something was going on.  I called her back and she wanted to know how things were going with our house being built and how long until we would be in the house...as in an exact date when we would be in.  I thought that was kind of odd.  She then proceeded to tell me about a possible placement opportunity.  A birth mother was looking at placing her baby and she was pretty specific in what she was looking for in a family.  Since we met all the criteria and because there weren't a lot of families that did, our file was pulled and shown to her.  (Our profile had been taken off the site when we sold our house because we then didn't have a current home study.  Our plan was to get home studied once we got into our new home)  Our caseworker wanted to know if we were interested  and if we were interested we needed to hurry and get my mom's home home studied since that is where we were currently living or move into another place and get it home studied since the baby would arrive before our home would be finished.  The baby was due in three weeks but could come at any time.  It was the call that I had been waiting for.  For months I felt that we would be getting a baby soon and I felt that when it happened we wouldn't have a long time to get ready.  Heavenly Father was definitely getting us ready and His hand was in every step of this adoption.   I already knew that we were interested but our our caseworker told me to talk to Luke and take some time thinking and praying about it.  When I called her back and let her know that we were definitely interested she then told us that the birth mother was deciding between us and another couple and that we would find out later that week.  I can't even begin to explain how excited we were.  We ended up not finding out that we had been chosen until a week later (Boy, that was a loooong week.) but it felt so right when we found out.  Like I mentioned earlier, Heavenly Father's hand was in every step of the adoption.  Within a day we had arrangements made for another home that we could stay in and get home studied until our house was finished, Luke was able to take the time off work that was needed to get things in order, the place that we would be temporarily staying at was in the same school boundaries that our new home was.
Our little baby girl didn't come early like we thought she might.  On a early Monday morning Luke and I were headed out to wait at the hospital until our baby girl arrived.  Since my dad and step mom live near the hospital we went there for awhile.  Since we didn't know how long it would take our caseworker told us that she would let us know when to head for the hospital but probably not until the afternoon.  Well I think I lasted about fifteen minutes at my dads place before I got so antsy that I couldn't stand just waiting there.  Luke was busy doing something so I headed out to go pick out some flowers for the amazing lady that was carrying our baby.  Thirty minutes later and while I am in the middle of shopping I get a message from our caseworker that things are moving along pretty fast and that we should head to the the hospital.  I was so excited.  I couldn't believe that the baby that we had been praying for was on her way.  We were soon set up in a hospital room just down the hall from our birth mother.  In our hospital room the nurse logged on the the heart monitor in the delivery room so we could see when the contractions were happening and they told us what to look for on the screen so we would know exactly when the baby was born.  One minute we are looking at the screen and suddenly a green line appears that showed us that our baby girl had arrived.  Within a minute they were bringing her into our room to get her cleaned up.  It was such an amazing thing.  Our baby girl was beautiful. We instantly fell in love with her.

  Here is the monitor showing exactly when she was born.  We were so excited that Luke just had to take a picture of it.  She is here!!

Here they are getting out sweet little Anna all cleaned up and weighed.

Daddy and his new little princess

Isn't she absolutely beautiful!

Later that night my mom brought the kids by to see their new little sister.  What a good big brother. And look at the grin on Claire's face.  We pretty much kept this a secret until she arrived.  The only ones that we told were those involved in helping us get set up in our temporary home.  We didn't really even tell the kids beforehand.  We kept saying "If we get a sister soon...." and then explaining what would happen  but Claire had been praying for a baby for so long that we didn't want her to be upset it didn't work out.  After Anna was born Luke called Claire and told her that she now had a baby sister and it just didn't sink in.  I had to take the phone from him and tell her several times before she really understood.  Then she was so excited that she ran over to the neighbors to tell them.      

They love their little sister so much.  They came with presents and each got to pick out a balloon for her.

I got in plenty of cuddle time over the next few days.  I was told beforehand that our birth mother wanted me to stay at the hospital with Anna but I thought that meant she wanted me to visit the baby a lot.  Ha Ha...that is totally not what she meant.  They gave me and Anna our very own hospital room until she got released.  I must say that it was so nice being able to stay at the hospital with her.  Luke and I got in lots of bonding time with our sweet little angel.  

All dressed up and waiting to leave the hospital.

On our way home.  

We are so grateful for the miracle of adoption.  For a long time we knew that we were missing someone in our family and only through adoption were we able to get her.  Her birth mother is such an amazing and strong person.  Even though we have yet to meet her we love her more than she could possibly know. Thank you so much for giving us the priviledge of being a mom and dad to this sweet little girl.