This is Ella’s brother Isaac. Every Friday (well most) since August, we’ve gone out for breakfast for donuts. Afterward, we went shopping today to find a gift for “baby Ella” (said with a ridiculously cute “w” draw on the double “l”). He picked out this music box dog all on his own. He’s so excited to be a big brother. He carried a picture (yesterday’s actually) around of her all day with him and even told the cashier about his new baby sister! He’s going to be a force to be reckoned with to all those boys that come knockin’. So be prepared if you’re having a boy right about now.
Ella’s still doing well. Up 5 grams from yesterday. That’s not that much. But, it’s something. Every little bit helps. She’s sleeping well and doesn’t fuss much. She just needs to keep upping her feedings and start gaining some weight. Then she’ll get to come home to the chaos of home with a 2.5-year-old!
OK. This is Eloise.
And, here’s how she came to be part of our crazy little family.
On Valentine’s Day, we received a phone call from our “adoption agency of record” (as they call it in all the legal documents we’ve been signing the last few days) saying that a little girl had been born and her mother was ready to place her for adoption. That was pretty much all we knew and they needed to know if they could show our bio to the mother.
We were stoked! It was the first real lead that we’d had in the 15 months we had been in the “pool” being shown to prospective birth mothers (literally triple the length of Eloise’s brother’s adoption). Saying there had been ups & downs is a bit of an understatement. It was more like hills & valleys. We knew that GOD had a plan for our next family growth step, but we were honestly having a hard time seeing it… probably because we were in the way.
So, 2 nerve-wracking days go by and we’re anxious as all get out hoping that this little girl was going to be ours. But, there were other bios being shown (6 total in fact) and we knew that we only had a 16.667% chance of being chosen (Angie ran the math… I’m of the mind that numbers is hard). We had all but work ourselves into believing that she wasn’t ours until I got the call just after 1pm on 2.16.12. Angie could barely get out the words, “You have a daughter!” as I dropped a few choice words of disbelief.
We had been waiting for what felt like forever…
And she was worth every minute of the wait!
We still have a bit to wait as she’s in the NICU growing. She delivered somewhere between 30 – 33 weeks (that’s another long story). She’s as healthy as can be. No I.V.’s. Just monitors and a feeding tube for when she tuckers out too much to eat from a bottle. So, we’ll keep praying for her and you need to keep praying for us!
So, this is DAY 1 in our family, but it’s DAY 4 of life. We’ll continue the numbering as days since we met her… that way she gets the full 365 treatment just like her brother did!
Welcome to the family, Ella.
We’ve waited a long time for you.
We’ve been praying for you everyday.
You’ve been in our hearts since before we met you.
We can’t wait to bring you home!
+ DAD
