Bringing you up to date.

Hello all! Myrna suggested that we start a blog to keep everyone posted about our adoption journey and then later poste baby updates here as well. So . . . . . . I thought I'd give one a try. Myrna, I'm using the link you emailed me so I hope this works well!

To bring you all up to date on our adoption progress if you don't know about it already, we have matched with a birthfamily. The birthparents names are Tiffany and Mike. We've met them both twice and we also met Tiffany's mother. Tiffany invited us to go to her ultrasound on May 1, 2006 and we got to find out that she is having a girl! She let us keep the ultrasound pictures which I will attempt to post here when I'm done writing. We've stayed in relatively close contact with both Tiffany and Mike by phone since we matched with them. I just spoke with Tiffany on Monday and she told me that she has an appointment with the high risk pregnancy specialist again today and another stress test and ultrasound for the baby. She said she'll give us a call this weekend sometime to let us know how everything went. If you are wondering why Tiffany has to see a high risk specialist or have a stress test done on the baby, it's because she has asthma and allergies that have been giving her more and more trouble as the baby grows and begins to push on her diaphragm more. She said she was feeling pretty good although she had been having some of those false contractions (Braxton Hicks contractions I think they are called). Anyway, today the specialist will tell her if they want to stick to the plan of inducing or having a C-section at 39 weeks or if they will let her go full term and allow the baby to decide when she makes her entrance into the world. Tiffany's due date is July 4th, but 39 weeks would put her delivering that last week in June. June 27th I think . Even though I want the baby here as soon as humanly possible, I would rather have her go full term so that the baby can be as fully developed as possible and not have to spend extra time in the hospital.

We've pretty much got the house baby-proofed and ready. Kyle installed a cat door to the basement. We have those spinny thingys on all the door knobs to the outside and to the basement. Let me tell you those things are definitely child-proof b/c even I have a hard time operating them. Pray we never have to get out of the house fast b/c of a emergency b/c if I have trouble with them when I'm not stressed I can only imagine how bad it would be in a panic! We have outlet covers and cabinet locks installed that are a pain in the butt, but nowhere near as big a pain as the door knobs things! I've gone baby shopping and bought the essentials that I think we will need that first month or so. I consulted with Tina, my baby expert since she's a mother of 3 and soon to be mother of 4! I figure if anyone should know about babies today it's her!

Now we just wait and pray that all goes well with the delivery and that Tiffany doesn't change her mind. I can't say that I would blame her if she did, but it would sure crush us. We've got a name picked out and everything and are so excited we can barely stand it. Still, we know nothing is final until 48 hours after the birth so we pray that we can make it until then without getting too stressed out!

Ok, well I'm going to try to post those pictures and then I promise to update everyone once we hear from Tiffany this weekend.

The first ultrasound picture is of her face. The second one is her "girl parts" and they are even labled! The last ultrasound picture is of her foot and back of her head. Then we have a picture of Kyle and I with Tiffany and Mike and then a picture of just Tiffany and I.