Home Sick :(

Well its been a week since Annabella made her arrival into the world. We went to court today and everything went wonderful. We were granted full custody of her and birth moms rights were terminated. She has given us the greatest gift that you could ever imagine and will always be apart of her life. We have become good friends along the way and will continue to grow closer as Annabella gets older.
Kevin got to come visit again today, but when he left it broke my heart. For those who don't know, because we adopted out of state, the baby can not leave the state of MO until we are approved by ICPC. Hopefully by this time next week we will be home. My mother in law is staying with me which helps, but I'm so ready to take Annabella home!! It has been a long week and I'm so very home sick. It would be so much easier if we could just be home, but she is worth every second. I love her so much and cant believe what God has given to us! Thank you Lord for an amazing blessing!!
Annabella is doing wonderful tho, she is eating very good and sleeping pretty good. She is just a doll and has stolen our hearts!

Daddy gets to visit!!

On Monday Kevin fianlly got to come up and see Annabella. He was all smiles!! He only got to stay for a few hours, but he enjoyed every single second he had with her. He brought such joy to my heart to see them together.

Annabella is in the NICU

Well about an hour after her arrival we found out that she had inhaled marconium and that made her lungs become inflamed. She had to be admitted to the NICU and be placed under an oxygen hood. She was there until her dismissal from the hospital on Tues. She did very well and recovered quickly. We gave her lots of love and attention as you can see :) She is a wonderful addition!! She is my moms first grand baby and is just in love and is spoiling her already.

Baby Annabella is here!!

Again I'm sorry it has been so long since I updated! We have been so busy preparing everything and getting ready for Annabella's arrival.

I got the call from birth mom on Fri Dec 3 at around 12:30 PM that her water broke. I was beyond excited and hurried to get everything ready to go. Fortunately my mom and mother in law were able to go with me. So we made it to St. Louis by 4:00 and waited with birth mom.

Annabella Virginia Torea Parkhurst made her arrival on Fri Dec 3 at 11:37 PM. She weighed 7 lbs 4.3 oz and was almost 21 in long.

I was able to be in the room for the delivery and got to cut the umbilical cord. I was fine until she cried out and my tears started rolling. She was so beautiful and I had waited so long for her!! I wish Kevin could have been there for her birth but couldn't be because of work. That's the story of her arrival. Thank you Lord for such a wonderful gift!!

We have an offical match!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are so excited!!!!!!!!!! We were matched with a birth mom the beginning of Oct. She is in St. Louis Mo, so its only 2 1/2hours from us!

I met with her and her mother yesterday and they are super sweet. I got to go to the Dr with her and she was able to get an ultrasound done while I was there. We found out we are having a GIRL!!!! Annabella Virginia is due Dec 7th and we just can't wait.

I have not posted in awhile and I appologize. My mom was diganoised with breast cancer in June. She had a lumpectomy done in July and they fould the cancer cells were spread. So last month she had a masectomoy. She is doing great now, she will not need any kind of treatment. So through all this God granted a prayer for her to have her 1st grandbaby for Christmas, then he allowed it to be a girl, just what she wanted!!! God's timing is perfect and His blessings are great!

Another Bump in the Road

Well we thought we were closer to securing our match, but God had other plans. We could not come with the entire amount needed to secure or match. I'm heart broken, but after talking with several people, I feel better. It's just not God's time for us to match up with our child yet. He knows the right time already, I just wish he would share with me! LOL
So now we wait again, this time with a little more knowledge & experience under our belt & more faith then ever!

Fundraiser :)

With our new match comes great hurdles to overcome. We now need to come up with $16,000 by Monday July, 19th. Well today we had a baked potato bar fundraiser, it was a big success!!! We raised right under $5000. Not bad for less then 24 hours planning.

Now the big hurdle is coming up with the rest of the money by tomorrow.

We Have A Match!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been a long winding road, but we are nearing the end. We got a match today...we are going to be the proud parents of a baby boy due to be born Oct 2nd.

It all started when we got a late night call from a friend. The friend called to tell us about a post she had seen on a yahoo group. She stated that there was a need for a family to adopt a premature baby in Washington.
We followed up with the lead the next day. We were directed to call Abby's One True Gift because they were the agency handling the adoption. We spoke with a case worker and learned that we were the only family interested. We worked hard at getting our application in to them on Saturday July 3. We got everything in and approved quickly and we're ready to move forward to the next step of a match call. We waited and waited, I sent several text, emails and made phone calls. Finally on July 6th we were told that they were waiting to hear from the doctor to make sure the baby was doing OK after the long holiday. Then on July 7th we got a call stating that the child had already been placed with another family. We were heartbroken and stunned. We were told that we were the only family interested and just didn't understand.
Finally after several more emails and text we found out why. The social worker at the hospital convinced the birth mother to place the baby with one of her families waiting.
Less then a week later we got a call about a birth mom in Michigan wanting to find an adoptive family. We got a match call set up for Wed July 13th at 4:00. We we're super excited yet nervous at the same time. We got on the phone to start the call and the birth mom was not on the line. The coordinator didn't know what happened. She tried calling the birth mom back several times with no reply. My heart sunk..I was sure she had changed her mind and we we're in for another heartache. We finally heard back from the coordinator On Thurs saying the birth mom did get scared, but got the call rescheduled for today.
We got on the call today..it lasted about an hour. The birth mom was very shy, but answered all our questions. 30 minutes after the call ended we got the news that she wanted to place her baby with us!!!!!!! I've been on cloud 9 all day!! LOL She stated that she liked how open we are willing to be and that us talking about our faith in God is what made her want to pick us. So that our story for now. We are looking forward to bringing Samuel Wilson home soon!

Time To Wait

Well everything has been done and approved. We got our PREP training finshed awhile back & had our last home visit for awhile. Now its time to wait. Our birthmom letter & pictures are now in the books. We have been in the books about a month now, but it seems like forever. We know that our profile has been viewed once, so at least there is some activity. I know the right match is out there and it's all in God's timing, but when your heart longs for a child its hard. Hopefully soon we will have good news!!

Thank you to my followers!!

I have not been very good at keeping up with my blog I guess because I'm not much of a writer. I just read all the comments that some of you have left about my previous post. I just want to thank you all for your kind words and support!!! It means so much to know that you all care and are excited for us!! I'm glad to have you all and that you know the struggles and the happiness that comes with adoption. I am praying for you all as you go through your process! Thank you again and love and blessings to you all.

Its Been Awhile

Well it's been quite a while since I last updated. First I will start with the good news. We have received more donations from a very gracious family! They have donated $5100 towards our adoption. We can never begin to thank them enough or completely have them understand how very much it means to us.
As far as the adoption process, we have completed our home study and it was approved. This weekend we have PREP training. The next step will be going into the books and waiting for a birth mother to choose us as the parents of her baby. Just thinking about it gives me goose bumps. I am so excited and have never felt more ready to be a mother then right now.
My very best friend Shawn is throwing me a baby shower in April. We know we don't have a referral yet, but it just seems like the right time. Since we will be in the books in a week, it could happen quickly. I am really excited about the shower and just can't wait.
I guess that's all the news for now. I will let you all know how the training goes!