What a difference a day makes!!!!

After all the ups and downs of our adoption waiting....we are so happy to announce that we have been officially matched with a birth mother!!!!!!!

Yesterday I received a call at work about 11 from the IAC (our agency). She told me that there was a last minute situation with a birth mother in Missouri and wanted to know if we were interested. Apparently she was matched up with a family that backed out yesterday when she called to let them know she could be scheduled soon for a c-section. I, of course, said YES!! Well, the birth mother wanted to talk to us so I called her.

Her name is Lori and she is 35 years old. She lives in Steeleville Missouri with her father right now. She has 5 living children - the last 2 were placed for adoption. The reason we thought this was last minute was because Lori is high-risk and they are going to schedule a c-section soon. We exchanged quick information and then she informed me that she was actually on her way to St. Louis for her doctor appointment at Barnes downtown and wanted to know if we could come meet her down there. I was so excited, but Cal remained very cautious. I immediately left work to convince Cal this is something we should look into. He kept saying "we're not ready!" (The short notice freaked him out a bit). But I reminded him that the day we signed up with the agency is the day we said we were ready to be parents.

After discussing this with Cal, we were soon on our way down to the hospital. We found Lori right away and we were all so nervous - we just kept asking each other questions. In the doctor's waiting room she asked us if this we want to do this. We told her we had some questions and wanted to think about it before making our final decision. She went in with the doctor and we were able to discuss things. We decided that we were going to make up our mind before we left that day because we didn't want to leave her in limbo and have to experience the emotional roller coaster that we've been on. And after discussion - we knew this is exactly what we wanted to do!!

Well, soon the doctor called us in to come see the ultra sound. We saw everything and just sat there in awe! We saw the head, the heart, elbows and even the face (see the first picture)!!! Then the doctor asked if we wanted to know the sex....and we found out we're having a baby girl! We both lost it and started crying. It was so amazing and we couldn't believe this was happening to us. After the doctor left, we looked at Lori and told her that we want to do this. She just started crying and was so relieved that she found a good family for her baby. It was an incredible experience!!!

Then we asked about scheduled c-sections. Basically, they do not want Lori to go full term because of complications in her past pregnancies. Next Tuesday they are doing an amnio to check if her lungs are fully developed. Once they are, we will be scheduling a c-section. This could happen next week or up to 2 weeks before her official due date (September 28th). So now we are going to be busy running around preparing for parenthood!!!

Our agency is not licensed in Missouri, so we are going to be working with a lawyer here in St. Louis to complete the adoption. There are so many great things about this situation and we get to be close to home when the baby comes! Missouri has a law that babies go into foster care until paperwork clears and then can go home with the adoptive parents. Lori is very concerned about this and doesn't want the baby moved. So we're going to work with the lawyer to try to avoid this from happening. We'll keep you all updated.

Thank you all for all your help through our roller coaster and putting up with my crying and worrying. We knew this day would come and we know that God had a hand in everything that has happened. Oh yeah - Lori is blonde with blue eyes and the birth father has reddish/blonde hair. She told us her last 3 babies have reddish hair. We always hoped for a read head - so we'll see what happens! Right now we're just flying high - ready to be parents!!!!