From Loved to Loved

This past Thursday night we met with a young pregnant mom and her mother to get to know each other and talk about the possibility of David and I adopting this precious baby due in April.  We had a lovely time and David and I both really enjoyed getting to know A and her mom.  It was less than 2 weeks ago that I was tearfully praying one evening that God would bless us with more children.  At that time I didn't see how adoption would be possible for us to pursue again due to finances.  But God had other plans!  I still cannot believe this is happening and we feel overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement that this young lady would choose us to parent her baby.  I love the words in the image above. Believe it or not, there are some people who think that women make adoption plans for their unborn child out of apathy.  That they don't care what happens to the child or are too interested in their own things to care for a child.  NOTHING could be further from the truth in my experience.  Women who make adoption plans LOVE their babies.  They are acting in an incredibly selfless way.  We have nothing but respect and admiration for the woman who entrusted Zeke to us as well as for this young lady, who is offering us the chance to be parents for a second time. 

Adoption is amazing.  And the longer we walk this path and the more comfortable we become in our skin as adoptive parents the more wonderful it becomes. 

Dear Little One,

You don't know me yet- but I am praying for you.  The mother carrying you loves you and is taking such great care of you!  As she holds you in her womb, I am holding you in my heart.  I cannot wait to meet you!  I hope that you always know that you are going from cherished to cherished, from chosen to chosen and from loved to loved.

All my Heart,
Mommy

Prince Zeke's Chambers

The royal chambers are complete & ready for Prince Zeke to arrive!  We finished it up last night- hanging pictures on the walls.  We bought the framed artwork off of Etsy, were given the 2 white pieces (shelves & coat rack) by a past employer.  They are pieces since I clearly remember them hanging in their daughter's bedroom for years.  The "Prince" sign was a gift from a special friend!  The curtains & glider were given to us by another past employer.  The tall blue bookcase was a gift from my parents.  The crib & changing table/dresser were gifts from my mother.  The book rack & castle were purchased off Craigslist.  Yes, that is a super cool castle dollhouse- it opens like cupboard doors & has rooms, furniture, royal people, etc.  The bottom of the castle is for toy storage.
We love the room so much & are so excited about how it turned out!!  Is like to get a few more knick knackie prince things for the shelves but otherwise we just need Zeke to make it official!  Call me crazy but I think I'm going to even affix a tired blue ribbon to the threshold & have a special moment for when we bring him home :)
15 more days until Prince Zeke arrives!
PS I can't get the photos to appear the right direction or in the right order on my phone!  I will fix it when I get home & can work on a real computer!

Pick A Card- Any Card

So I've been pondering in my heart these last few weeks what special message I want to write to our birth mom.  There really are no words but only deep full emotions that I hope to convey in some sort of representative collection of words.  The magnitude of the relationship between two mothers forever bound together by their mutual love of a child is not easily expressed!  Part of my list of considerations in doing this is to pick a card.  What kind of card?  Well, I'm so glad you asked!

THANK YOU CARDS  Even the most heart felt gratitude typed into a card in cursive & rhyming couplets almost feels like an insult.  I long to show our birth mom the depths of my gratitude.  Gratitude for her incredible sacrifice, her unwavering trust in us, her complete love of this child, her desire for an open addition, her support of us as we prepare to parent & so much more.  Thank you cards are great for the lasagna your dear friend cooked while you were sick so you didn't have to or the neighbor who watched your dog while you were away or even the visitor who brought you flowers after a death in the family.  But somehow when someone is handing you there flesh & blood entrusting their precious child's life into your hands, a thank you card falls flat.

CONGRATULATIONS CARDS  On the surface this might seem hurtful.  A Congratulations on your new baby card to a woman essentially choosing to have empty arms after giving birth almost seems like a slap in the face.  In my deepest heart I want to congratulate our dear birth mom!  She did it!  She was pregnant for all those months.  She endured sleepless nights.  She labored with deep love for this child in more ways than one.  She is & forever will be this child's mom & for all of that & more she deserves to be celebrated!  However, the gleeful expressions in those cards might come across insensitive to her great loss & sacrifice.

CARE & CONCERN CARDS  This woman that I have come to love in a way that I can't even put into words is intentionally walking a path known to be filled with pain & heart break.  She is about to walk through one of the very deepest valleys of grief & I am genuinely concerned for her.  I want our birth mom to know that we care about her & are not just in this to have a baby.  We are grieved at her loss & even though it brings us great joy to become parents, it pains our hearts to know it comes at her very personal expense.  We want her to know that our prayers are with her.  In those wee our of the night while we rock our son, we will be lifting her up, praying that God would comfort her & cradle her. 

GET WELL SOON CARDS  Although in some ways minor compared to the other things happening, our birth mom will be physically healing from the c-section & all of the things that go along with pregnancy.  We want her to know that we care about her physically!  The discomforts & inconveniences of recovering from such a surgery are no walk in the park!  We pray that the physical part of this healing journey would be smooth & as easy as possible.

So, if you happen to know of a great Thank-You-Congrarulations-Care-&-Concern-Get-Well-Soon Card let me know!  In the mean time, I will be at the craft store, trying to figure out how to convey all of this & more with a folded piece of paper, some nice pens & maybe a stamp or two.

With much love for our birth mom!

32 Week Ultrasound

Just a few pics of our cutey-patootey Zeke :)  Can you tell what's what?   The ultrasound tech said he looks to have plenty of hair!  He was measuring around 4.5 pounds at this ultrasound.  You might remember the belly buds and recordings our birth mom is playing to him?  Well, at first she said he would kick at where the belly buds were on her stomach.  Now she says he likes to fall asleep to them :)  This makes my heart so happy as I pray God weaves our love for him into his little heart even now.  In general everything is going well!  I had a few days of worry last week that our birth mom would change her mind.  While that is always possible, God used some cherished friends to remind me that God is trustworthy with all things - even this.  Thanks for your prayers and support.  We can't wait to hold him and share him with all of you!  Enjoy!

They said YES

Tuesday, July 17 David and I received the long awaited news that we were home study approved!  What a sigh of relief!  This news comes almost exactly ONE YEAR from the day we decided to start the adoption process.  If the process had progressed as we expected when we set out, we would just now be in the waiting pool of families looking to adopt!  But God had different plans!  I will admit this wait for approval tried to steel my joy many times God was faithful to strengthen my hope and faith in His good plan.  All we can say is Thank you Lord!  And that we trust that none of this was by chance or accident.  God didn't forget about getting to this detail.  He didn't procrastinate.  He didn't do things in the 'wrong' order.  He did things in precisely the best way!  And we rest in knowing that He has a plan far greater than ours!  What a blessing to have this seal of God's approval on our journey toward parenthood. 

Zeke Jaden Jo Nation

We are so excited about the name God has given us for our son!  (We decided on July 14.)

Zeke means 'Strengthened by God.'  All throughout picking names we just kept saying how important it was to us that he has a strong name and this one is perfect!  Yes, he will spend the rest of his life being asked "Is that short of Ezekiel?"  but hopefully that is a cross he will be willing to bear!  (Is that the right form of the word 'bear' -- oh no -- can't decide!  Forgive me if its wrong- and feel free to leave a comment :)

Jaden means 'Jehovah has Heard.'  For very obvious reasons we love the meaning here.  And just because I can't say it enough and its never gets old I will repeat--Jehovah has heard the cry of our hearts and the prayers of MANY people and is giving us a son!  Praise Him!  We love the sound of this name and considered it as our first name.  We chose to put it in the middle mainly because we loved Zeke and also because we didn't want his first name to be gender neutral (that didn't seem very strong to us.)

Jo is our birth mom's middle name and she requested we have this somewhere in his name.  We are honored to include it and look forward to him having this name in common with her.  We also particularly wanted his middle initials to be JJ as they are our birth mom's first 2 initials also.

It has been an honor and quite a journey to pick...or rather discover...our son's name!

Just for fun...here are a few of our other names that put up quite a fight!

Abraham - father of nations (David particularly liked this one.) 

 Malachi - messenger of God  (One of Em's faves.)

Leo - lion of God

Jethro - abundance

Elliott - The Lord is my God

Josiah - Jehovah has healed

Tobias - God is good

To celebrate, we made Zeke a cake :)
(Not sure why I can't figure out how to flip the picture...but you get the idea.)

One of the resources we read said to "try the name out" in various ways so here it goes...

Zeke Nation

Zeke J J Nation

Zeke J Nation

ZJJN

ZJN

David, Emma & Zeke Nation

Sounds good, right ?  We think so.

Our birth mom loves calling him by name, as does her family and friends.  This is such an added blessing to have her love the name as much as we do!

...but who's counting...

1 

day until my last girls night being the ONLY non-mother in the room!

4  

days until we are presented for home study approval!  We will hear the decision that same day.

13  

days until we see our son again via ultrasound! 

20 

days until my last dental appointment as a non-mother :)

27 

days until we tour the hospital and register for the birth!

36 

 days until my super incredible Children's Book themed baby shower!!!!

49

  days until our birth mom's birthday!

50

 days until we enter our baby's birthday month!

61

  days until my nanny career comes to an end.

62

  days until my life changes forever and our son is born!

Just a few more...

4 

more gatherings with our small group...

9

  more Sundays...

35

  more work days with the twins...

I'm just a little excited :)