Backtracking...How our adventure started

OK, so many people don't know our story, or when it began; but we made the decision to adopt over Memorial Day weekend in 2008. Though we had talked about it as an option, we hadn't decided until that weekend. We were in Ruidoso with our family and were hanging out with our niece and nephew, Hannah and Jake and Jake, very innocently asked us, "When are you guys going to have a baby?" I thought that was cute,
I asked him if he was tired of being the youngest, and he said, "No, I'm tired of being the slowest."
We had a good laugh about that and told our sister-in-law, who apologized for that. We had struggled with infertility for years, but this was not an emotional trigger for me. But Kristi (sister-in-law) told me that Hannah prayed every night for us to have a baby. That WAS an emotional trigger for me!

So, I was telling Rodney about this conversation, and he said, "Well, aren't you ready to adopt yet?" To this day, I don't know if he was kidding or if he really thought I was the one holding up the beginning to this process, but I immediately went home and started the research.
THAT was overwhelming!

I called my friend, Rebecca, who is VERY good with the research and organization and found out they were using an agency in Colorado called Hope's Promise. It's a Christian agency with a low rate of birth mothers changing their minds and does a great job of counseling them through the process. AND, their fee structure was pretty clear, as opposed to other agencies I was looking at.
So, we put in the preliminary paperwork in July of 2008 and got approved to BEGIN the process.
That was approved, but we didn't really do anything until we received notice that we had to attend a 16 hour parenting training in Colorado. That was October. We attended with our friends Russ and Rebecca, and that's when it started to seem real.

When we got home, we had the packet of paperwork waiting for us...all the criminal checks, FBI clearance, fingerprinting, autobiographies, home studies and medical histories that had to be filled out before we would be considered.

At our first home study, we found out we needed fire extinguishers (always a good idea) and a fence around our pool. That was November, right before Thanksgiving. After those things were done, then we had a second visit in January, after which all the paperwork was sent to the juvenile courts to give us the A-OK that we are fit parents.

Then we waited.

It wasn't until a conversation with my receptionist--who was 5 months pregnant and talking about "expecting" and registering for all her baby stuff, that I realized that we, too, were "expecting" and I verbalized as much to her--and freaked OUT!

That was June 4.

I told Rodney on June 7 about my little "freak out" and he asked if we should start getting a nursery together, I promptly answered, "NO" as I had no intentions of looking at an empty nursery for who knows how long. One difference in "expecting" when you are pregnant and when you are adopting, is when you are pregnant you KNOW you have 9 months. When you are adopting, you have no idea how long you are "expecting."

On June 11, we came home to a voice mail from Sarah at Hope's Promise letting us know she would be showing profile books to a birth mom and wanted our permission to show ours. I called her the next day and she told us about the birth mom (April) and that she would be meeting with her on the upcoming Tuesday (June 16) and that April had indicated she would want to meet the people she selected, BEFORE making her final decision.

Let me tell you...those 4 days were the longest 4 days I think I've every had to wait! I felt like a child waiting before Christmas!

I was at work on the 16th when I got the call from Sarah telling us that April wanted to meet us.
We made arrangements to meet her the following Monday in Grand Junction Colorado. We had a lovely dinner with April and Sarah, and felt like we were on a blind date! We found out that April is musical and the birth father is artistic.

We still didn't know if she had picked us, but I was able to feel her pregnant tummy one time before we left. I can still feel that little bump under my hand and hope I never forget it!
When my phone rang the next morning, we were still in bed. Rodney said he has never seen me move so fast in his life...

I said, "You've never seen me move that fast in the morning?"

He said, "No. I've never seen you move that fast EVER."

I'm pretty sure I cried. I KNOW my mom cried when we told her. And the phone calls and e-mails began. The news spread.

We thought we had until the 27th of July...