One year ago today....

One year ago today our lives officially changed forever when Lovebug was place into our arms and hearts forever! (Want to read the details about that day? Click here!) This past year has undoubtedly been the best time of our lives. Our lives have been so enriched and filled with love by this little girl. We've learned more about each other and we've learned more about ourselves through her. We've witnessed first hand the most primal love you can have for your child. The kind of love that's immeasurable. What's the most amazing to me is that when I think it's impossible to love her anymore, I wake up the next day and my love for her has compounded! Everyday I love her more than the previous day. A year ago today I couldn't even imagine how I would feel today and today I can't imagine how I ever lived without her! Mommy loves you baby girl, always and forever!

Our first cuddle one year ago today!

Open Adoption Round Table #27 "First Meeting"

Every parent has their own unique story of meeting their child for the first time. Maybe it was in the hospital room where you got to witness your child breathe their first breath. Maybe you sat in a waiting until someone came to whisk away to a room where your child was waiting. Maybe you sat at your agency anxiously awaiting your new baby to arrive. Or maybe, surrounded by strangers sipping their lattes, you walked into a Starbucks and first layed eyes on your precious child.

Yep. The latter was us! 


I think back to driving up to the building and trying to peer in the overly glared windows just waiting to get my first glimpse of our daughter. It was packed. I wondered what the people exiting the store thought about us walking in with an empty car seat.  As we pulled the door open I got so nervous. I scanned the room quickly looking for the sw and the baby. Finally I saw the sw tucked into a corner and as she saw me she smiled and reached to pick our daughter up out of her car seat. As she picked her up and we saw her for the first time and I swear the heavens opened. The music started. And then right before we started to say our first hello's a  man walking by chimed in with a "Wow, that's a beautiful baby! How old is she?!" Pretty much jetting his head between us and the baby! I don't remember what I said to him, but I'm pretty sure flames came shooting out of my eyeballs! Dude! This is our moment buddy... go away! LOL!

The first one to hold Lovebug was my Hubby. This in and of itself was monumental, since as his rule, he never held itty bitty babies. She was so small in his arms and so absolutely beautiful. As we peered at our daughter for the first time, examining her hands, kissing her tiny face, that overly crowed small Starbucks could have been empty for all we knew. It was love at first sight. The only people who existed in that moment was the 3 of us. Somehow we managed to pay enough attention to sign some paperwork, although it wasn't without a few "wait, can you repeat that?" questions. We spent a little more time going over the hospital discharge info and how things would go from here(since we had to wait out a revocation period) and then S, the sw, said "well, time for me to get going!". *gulp* Wow, this was really happening! After we said our goodbyes to her and she walked out of the restaurant I remember thinking how surreal it was to just be left with the baby. I mean I knew that's what would happen and obviously what we wanted to happen, but when it happened it was just so surreal.

We kinda just stared at each other for a second and then fumbled around with packing up all the little baby things that we weren't yet used to. After we got things together we buckled Lovebug in her new seat, snapped a picture of her to send to all of our anxious family members and walked out of the Starbucks, but this time with a full seat!

As we drove away we both broke down. All the years we waited, all that we wanted was finally sitting in our back seat. To say we were happy is an understatement. Our first meeting with our daughter was totally unconventional, totally awesome and a great story to share when we want to mix things up a little :)

Oh and the picture in my header is of that day! Notice the cup just to my right? Yeah, no big deal...

If you want to see more responses to the discussion click here!

Vacation and 1st visit 2011!

Our hike at Chimney Rock!

Wow! Whats an amazing 10 days we just had. First off I have to brag a bit because I'm pretty sure we have the best baby ever! Last Friday started our journey north. I was pretty nervous because, aside from the drive home when Lovebug was 13 days old, we've not driven more then 2 hours with her in the car and at 10.5 months old she knows she can get up and move and doesn't like to sit still! But, much to Mommy and Daddy's heartwarming surprise, she was an absolute angel in the car(not that she's not usually an angel... but you know what I mean)! She napped, she played, we read books and for those moments when it seemed she was about to flip, we had the back up Baby Einstein...Shhh..don't tell anyone!

So our vacation went something like this:

For the first 4 1/2 days we stayed in a cabin with dear friends in North Carolina. We went to the zoo, hiked up Chimney Rock to see the most beautiful view, hiked to a waterfall, the boys went mountain biking and the girls hung at the beautiful cabin, swinging on the huge porch swing(I mean seriously, it was a twin bed on a swing!), picking blackberries and soaking up just being in the quiet, beautiful smokey mountains. To say it was relaxing is an understatement.

The cabin

Next we went south to Georgia to visit Aunt M and Uncle P! While there we visited the Georgia Aquarium, went to an amazing indoor pool that had a playground in the water (Lovebug was all over that! I swear she's secretly a fish!) and while in GA we got to see Lovebugs birthfamily!! The aquarium was gorgeous! Within 10 minutes of seeing the fish, Lovebug learned what a fish say's. If you ask her "Lovebug, what does a fish say?" She's opens and closes her mouth in kind of a "pop, pop, pop" way. It's beyond adorable!

At the Aquarium

But, I want to stop the story here for a second before we talk about our visit...I know I referred to Lovebugs "birthfamily", but I've come to realize that I don't like adoption lingo too much. To me "birthfamily" doesn't really fit. They weren't just her family at birth. They're still her family. They're our family. After our visit this became even more apparent. So, lately I've been stewing over whats appropriate. Do we say "other family"? Then I feel like there's a divide for Lovebug. Maybe "first family"? I'm not sure. Maybe we'll just refer to them as "The 'insert last name'" like we do with other extended family members. And for C, I don't know what to call her. Some use "Tummy Mommy", C herself sometimes jokingly says "Wommy" for womb mommy, some use Mama C. Not sure, I think I'll ask her what she comfortable with and we'll go from there.

Ok, back to the story. So our visit was great! Being the normal ball of nerves I can be, I was shocked at how calm I felt about the whole thing! In the days leading up I didn't feel anything but excitement to see C and her family! But, as we parked the car and started to walk up, knowing that right around the corner stood the women that brought our daughter into the world and the family that loves her so, I got nervous. What was this going to be like? Would they crumble as they saw her? What if Lovebug was unusually clingy to me or Hubby and didn't want to go to anyone? What if I can't keep it together? As we walked up, about to round the corner, I looked at Hubby and said "It's 'bout to get heavy up in here!" Breaking the tension slightly, we laughed and made the turn. The first faces we saw were C and her mom with huge smiles and a welcoming "hello"! Immediately, my fears vanished and we greeted each other with warm hugs. For the rest of the afternoon we ate lunch and played in the near by fountains, enjoying talking to each other about life and Lovebug. They got to see of Lovebugs newest tricks. On the trip she'd learned what an elephant and a fish say and loved showing off her new skills to everyone! I kinda felt like the paparazzi snapping pictures left and right, but I wanted to remember these moments forever. I loved seeing each of them hold Lovebug for the first time since she was born. Taking in all of her little self. I loved each of the little moments they all sole away with her. Watching C hold her face to face as Lovebug traced her facial features (before grabbing her nose, but hey still sweet!) watching C's sister introduce C's niece to her cousin for the first time, seeing C's dad gaze down at Lovebug and watching Lovebug cuddle up on C's mom's shoulder as we walked over to the fountains.

It was overwhelming to see how much love our daughter has in her life.

After the girls played in the fountains for a while, it was time for C and her family to head home. I was sad that our afternoon with them was ending unsure of when we'd see them again. As we said our goodbyes, C said she was planning to come down our way to visit a friend in the fall and gestured that while she was down she wanted to head down our way! We're so excited! I was especially excited because we initiated this visit, so to have her initiate the next one felt awesome!

So to cap it off, vacation 2011 was huge! Not only was it our first family road trip where we had an unbelievable time, but also Lovebugs first family reunion. God has so richly blessed our lives in the past year, it's sometimes hard to take it all in. But, in every moment we're thankful to the One who was faithful to give us the desires of our hearts. Desire's that at time's we couldn't fully see, but now we see in plain view.