Here we go again!

2 nights ago I (Julie) was delivering visiting teaching assignments and stopped by my friends house, the one who works at LDS Family services. We got talking and my friend mentioned that she had a co-worker she used to work with that now works for an adoption agency in Salt Lake. She had received an email about 2 situations where the birth mom was due soon and the agency was looking for adoptive families.

The first situation is a Caucasian baby girl due in 2 weeks and then 2nd situation is a Black baby boy due July 16. Both situations had some concerns are were quite expensive. She mentioned them kind of in passing. She didn't think we would be interested in either case. I told her the baby boy sounds like a better situation as we didn't really care about the race. Our main concern is to have a healthy baby. The boy's mother had never smoked, no alcohol use, and no drug use.

I came home and explained both situations to Jared. We decided we wanted to start by getting more information. Due to the substance abuse of the baby girls mother, we decided to look further into the baby boy's situation. So my friend contacted her co-worker yesterday (June 13) and had her forward us more information about the birth mom. Jared and I both read the information separately, but both had the same reaction. Tears came to our eyes as we read about this wonderful birth mom and what helped her make the decision to place her baby for adoption. We were both feeling good about proceeding, even though the cost is significantly more than what we were planning on paying.

While I was at lunch, I received a call from my friend that said the birth mom had gone into labor (5 weeks early)! Her water broke and the baby was coming! She needed to know if we were serious about this opportunity. I couldn't get a hold of Jared, but told her definitely, we were. Just that morning Jared was saying how he hopes this time we will be able to think and pray for a few days before making a decision. Apparently that wasn't in the bigger plan.

I got a call from the social worker, Rachel, with the agency around 5:00 pm. The birth mom had delivered a healthy 5 pound baby boy. His APGAR was 9 and 9. He was breathing on his own and doing well. She said the birth mom had not had time to pick a family, and told Rachel to just have the agency pick. She just wants a family that will love this little boy and raise him in a good home. Rachel did not have any families through her agency. She was going to have to do a random pick from a different agency, or go off our friends recommendation of us. She told me she would like us to be the adoptive family if we were ok with that. I told her we definitely were.

So then the fun begins! The mom and baby are in a Salt Lake hospital. I spent several hours last night filling out an application for the agency and getting things ready to head to Salt Lake today. The girls come back from St. George today and we are going to take them up to Salt Lake with us to meet their new brother. Hopefully we will be able to meet mom and/or baby tonight. The baby will be in the hospital for several days due to how early he was born.

There are still a lot of things that need to happen for this to go through, ie: birth mom relinquish her rights, birth father sign off his rights (which he says he is willing to do), all our paperwork filled out, come up with a large sum of money that has to be paid in full before child is placed, figure out our time off work schedules, etc. The next few days are going to be crazy-but hopefully good crazy! We will definitely keep you posted as things unfold!