What happened on Monday 10/10/11....

(I plan on posting this after we find out what happens this weekend. So I am going to write it as things currently sit, and will make this public afterwards. )
So on the same day when, I prayed in the shower and asked God to expedite the adoption. Then I walked out and heard Ava singing praise songs of straight up truth. That day I posted 2 entries here. The very second that I posted the one about Ava singing her praises and God's promises being kept. Literally, I pressed "publish post", and the phone rang.





It was Paul telling me that we had been chosen by a birthmom to adopt. Apparently, we had been chosen for a while but there were pregnancy complications so they were waiting to make certain baby was fine. Well, baby girl was born October 3rd at 6:30pm. She was 3 weeks early but healthy and precious(I'm told)!


The timing was truly hilarious. Though you couldn't see that through the monsoon of tears, but I was laughing a good bit.


Paul was in New Orleans, on business, when he called to tell me. To quote my favorite movie line, "I couldn't have been more surprised if I had woken up with my head sewn to the carpet"-Clark Griswold. I calmly sat and listened as he calmly told me the details that he knew.


The baby was born in Georgia, where the birthmom has 10 days to change her mind, no questions asked, and get her baby back. Our ten days expire this Friday night. Nothing like having 4 days of nailbiting, right?!


If, big huge IF, we get past Friday, the birthmom wants to meet us on Sunday in Atlanta with her family and friends. She wants to meet us and interview us. (nothing like a calm 2.5 hr drive to frey the nerves or worship God and gain His peace) So the mind begins to race "what should I wear, dress fancy or jeans and a nice top, must clear up complexion before then, what jewelry, what if I trip and fall on my face when walking in the door, will Paul be nervous, what should he wear, etc".


If we get past Friday's deadline and meet her on Sunday, and all is well, it's still not a done deal. On Monday our lawyers have to file papers with the courts to take the baby across state lines into Alabama. That takes 2 weeks-ish. And there's the paternity issue. The birthfather/putative father said in the very beginning he wanted the baby and a pat test. However, he has taken no steps towards that. He's still a minor and has no job, no education, and no parents to support him nor a baby. But he is the biological father and has rights that would need to be relinquished.





So IF we get past Friday, IF we get past Sunday, IF the paper work gets filed correctly and we get the opportunity to see baby by Oct 24th, we have a HUGE decision to make.....Do we take custody of the child and begin to bond and parent and love all the while knowing that baby could be taken away by biological father at any moment for the next 60-ish days OR wait til the legals are settled and then bring baby home?


We have to keep in mind that this would devastate not only us to have a child taken from our arms and hearts but also how would it affect Ava. We have to protect her at all costs. She is for sure ours and her heart is in our guardianship. Big responsibility. We could tell her that we are going to take care of this baby for a little while until her mommy and daddy can and just tell her it's temporary, and not let her know it's a potential sibling. But she WILL bond with baby. And if baby gets taken away, she will see devastated mommy and daddy and not get it.





So....lots going on.





And we obviously, don't have a nursery ready. In fact the only baby item we own is a crib sitting in a box. It's sitting in the future nursery/currently Paul's office. We don't have baby clothes, we don't own baby bottles, swings, bouncer, etc. It would be starting from square one. And instead of 9 months to get ready, we'd likely have a week or few days.





I have been tempted to go and register now so that when/if things happen I wont have to scramble to make a list, I'll already have it stored online, so that I can just go and purchase what we need. And yesterday a wod of Target Baby coupons came in the mail.


However, I cannot bring my self to go to Target and register and look at baby stuff. This could all end any minute.


We are literally taking things an hour at a time, sometimes a minute at a time.





We have told a few family members. We have told a few friends that we know will faithfully pray for us. We just don't want every one in the know and asking us "hows it going". Because one minute, things are good. The other you're trying to contain the water works and sniffles.





I set out to blog the truth about our journey. I am holding this post a couple of days until we find out what happens this week/weekend. Until then we are trying to guard ourselves emotionally. Pretending its not happening. And fortunately, God has been such an amazing comforter and protector. I asked Him to guard our hearts and help us not think about it. And He's doing a great job.





But it would be nice to bring baby GIRL into our home.