over the past months

Well, much time has past and we now are only one month away from being proud parents through adoption! I have hesitated to write anything for a while but, now we have much news to tell. We have been matched with a birth mom.

Our first meeting with her was in the month of June. She was about four months pregnant at that time. This is not very common, typically we might meet a birth mom at seven months . We met in Kansas, in a apartment parking lot. We had to invite a English/Spanish speaking translator with us. The birth mom only speaks Spanish. We exchanged greetings and first names then, I handed her one of our profiles ( a seven page book of photos including a short letter to the birth mom). This birth mom of course could not read our profile.

*update: later that night, after our meeting and looking at our profile pictures, the birth mom went to lay down to rest. She told my mom that my face was in her mind even though awake. When my mom first told me that (My mom is bilingual and the birth mom shared this with her.)I did not know what to make of it. I was in awe. The Lord was doing, confirming, speaking something to the birth mom and I was thankful for it!

The following day we saw our adoption attorney in Kansas, Mr. Kenney. He was very optimistic about our plan and even though she is here illegally from Mexico the adoption could be done. He said this situation is not completely unheard of. Our first thoughts were that it could not possibly be a successful adoption.

As the months passed we gradually began to trust the situation and build a relationship with the birth mom. Her housing situation became unstable and we became actively involved. We moved her and her son to temporary housing. When that situation turned out unsuitable for them we saw the need to move her again. Maybe this is the moment when our adoption changed from semi-open to OPEN.

My mom and dad also became active participants in our adoption plans. They opened their home to the birth mom and son. Now all four of us are very much apart of the journey. It is truly amazing ... among other words! It all seems so hard to put into words sometimes. We make all of her doctor appointments for her and her son, we drive her to the appointments, to lunch , to go shopping, to go to the zoo, before she stopped working we would take her back and forth to work, you get the idea.

The wonderful thing is when my mom(grandma Silvia)was able to hear the baby's heart beat with the birth mom for the first time, and later see the baby; the sonogram confirmed that it was a GIRL!! Our birth mom also has gestational diabetes, so she was referred to a new doctor and this is now considered a high risk pregnancy. Every time she goes to an appointment it's at KU Med in Kansas. We are about a month away from meeting our baby girl and while I'm waiting for her, I'm fixing up her room and starting to make her LIFE BOOK. Our phone's are always on now, day and night. She could come early is what we are all thinking. We can't wait to meet her!

Thank you for reading a bit of our story, Elisabeth