The backstory, part 3

Sorry this is so long, but I'm writing this down for my sake as much as to share with my friends that read this. :)

So, I told my sisters that we had been chosen. Once Micayla and I got back to TX, Hudson chose to share it with his parents as well, mainly because they kept wanting to set dates for a family vacation this summer that was never going to work with a new baby. We were able to have 2 more visits with our birthmom, and absolutely adore her. In fact, I miss seeing her each week--she's just wonderful and I'm so excited that we get to be a part of her extended family and vice versa. The nice thing is, she feels the same way.

She really wanted to be induced so that she wouldn't have to wait until her due date to go into labor. She had a pretty big baby before, and she's super tiny, and her dr. was okay with inducing her once she hit 39 weeks. Her dr. was extremely supportive of her adoption plan, and wanted to make her experience as best as she could for our birthmom. S also asked that I be present for the delivery--what a gift. She wanted to make sure that I was a part of this baby's life from the very beginning, and I was beyond floored by her generosity. Hudson had a final due Mother's Day weekend, and graduation for school (he works alot of the details for graduation) the weekend before (first weekend of May). I kept praying that this little baby's birthday was already chosen by God, and again, I had to trust the details to Him. No sense worrying about it, because it wouldn't have changed anything. So we made a decision to try and take Micayla on a special trip the only weekend we had available, since we knew her life was going to change drastically once a new baby arrived. So that's when we went to Jellystone Park and camped--she is still talking about going even 3 weeks later. It was great to get away and enjoy some one-on-one time with our girl. And (because I know she's reading) a huge thanks to Haylie and her hubby covering for us at church so that we could get away. :)

We had a visit scheduled with S on Saturday, May 5th. Hudson worked his school's graduation that morning, we dropped off Micayla at our friend's home and off we went for another visit. It was a great visit again--everything still stayed the same, no changes. She still wanted me there at delivery. We had a plan for being called, etc., and getting to the hospital. She had even made from scratch cookies for us, which, if you don't know, is an awesome way to show Hudson how much you like him. (Can homemade cookies be a love language? Because they are for my hubby.) Anyways, her mom had come to spend the day with her and they had plans to go out for dinner that evening. It was also a full moon--we joked about her going into labor that evening. She was so ready and was making some progress in preparing for labor, but nothing that was good enough to warrant a trip to the hospital yet. She was scheduled to go back to the dr. the following Thursday, and she was hoping that she would have an induction scheduled for the next day (Friday, the 11th). We were concerned about doing placement over Mother's Day weekend, but she was certain that it would be really special. So we said our goodbyes, jokingly said that we would see her later that evening because she would be in labor, and off we went (it was about 4:30 pm).

5:00 am, Sunday, May 6th. Hudson's cell phone rings. For someone that normally keeps his cell on silent at night, he (tells me later) chose to intentionally keep it on just in case Cindy called. I knew as soon as the phone rang who it was. Cindy tells Hudson that S is in labor, things were happening fast, and that we needed to get to the hospital. Now the hospital that she was delivering at was 1 hour away. Not something we could make happen quickly. So we both showered, got our things together, and I called our friend at 6:00 am that I knew could take Micayla for the day for us. I woke up Micayla at 6:15, we got her ready and dropped off, and then heade towards the hospital. Now, we don't miss many Sundays at church, especially because we lead our SS class. So to miss two in a row is quite unusual. So another text to let our friends know that we wouldn't be there (we did share why this time...I was hoping to tell her that morning about the upcoming events) and we got to the hospital about 7:20. Once we got there, another worker met us and let us know that Riley had been born at 5:37 am, and that S had such a quick labor that she didn't even have time to get an epidural. We went in and saw her and him, we got to hold him, and we spent all morning with S and Riley and S's parents. I got to feed him a bottle, change his diaper, and just admire the handsome little boy in my arms. Hudson and I were beyond thrilled. S was so sorry that I didn't make it for the delivery--she even told me she tried to hold him in. :) I was really okay with it, and we planned on seeing her the following Tuesday for placement at the hospital. As we drove home, I kind of kicked my mind into high gear about all things I needed to get done in the one day I had (Micayla had school on Monday, thank goodness!). But since we weren't still telling Micayla, everything still had to be on the secretive side. She believed we were attending several meetings--even encouraged us to not to bite our friends at our meeting, and made sure to ask us when we got back if we did, in fact, "bit anybody." She was glad to hear that we didn't.

So Tuesday morning, we drop Micayla off to spend the day with her best friend. She was super thrilled about a fun day with her friends. I was thankful to not worry about her all day because she was in such good hands. We went to the hospital and waited in the lobby for a while until our agency came and met us. S signed her papers first, then we signed our papers in the lobby. Then we headed to the chapel of the hospital. We waited there while S was being discharged with Riley. S, Riley, and her parents met us in the chapel and we gave her some gifts, and she gave us his discharge instructions. S's stepdad prayed over us and Riley and then she placed him in my arms. (Cue crying here.) Amazingly, it was a really tender moment between S and Hudson and myself. Certainly she was sad, but she also wrote him the most beautiful letter about why she chose adoption for him, and why she chose us to be his parents. God was with us in those moments. We absolutely love S and are thankful beyond measure for the son she gave us. And we're thankful to God for His provision to enlarge our family, even when most of our hope was lost. S and her family left, we stayed for a little while at the hospital, then we packed him in his carseat and headed home. (It was almost lunchtime, so we stopped at CFA to get lunch and eat it in the car.) We called Hudson's parents to let them know we had him, I called my sisters, and then we went home. We got to spend all afternoon with our little guy before our big girl came home, which was great, since we had nothing set up in the way of caring for him (i.e. pack n play, clothes washed, bottles washed, etc.) We enjoyed our snuggles with Riley and prepared a few things for a big sister party that we had that evening for Micayla.

I'll share how God worked in our girl's heart the weeks before Riley was born and how we surprised her with a baby brother that eveing in the next post. :) For now, I'll leave you with some pictures of our newest blessing.

Riley Michael
born 5/6/2012
7 lbs, 5 oz, 19 1/2 inches long

Holding Riley a few hours after he was born.

Right after our placement ceremony.

Riley--yes, he has a ton of hair!

(Am working on updating our blog title since it is a bit incorrect now.)