Guess what......IT'S A GIRL :)

We got the call on Monday afternoon. We were shocked, thrilled and super excited. It was about 4pm when I saw that I missed a call on my cell phone. I saw the phone number and my heart skipped a beat. I just knew. This was the call about our son. The day we had been waiting for.

When I called back and started talking with the social worker, she first confirmed that we were open to adopting a boy or a girl to which I responded yes. She then said well, I have some news about a referral for you. It is a baby girl. At that point, I probably should have pulled over as I was in tears. We knew it could happen but really thought we were going to have a  boy. We had even started a list of boy names.

As we started to hear the details, things just clicked. This little girl fits in our family. We listened. We discussed. We sent the email of info to our international adoption doctor, the same one we used for Kiya's referral. We waited.

Our doctor called us at 6:15am on Tuesday. We were up and packing to head to the hospital for Kiya's 4th cast. I spoke with her for a few minutes. All medical info seemed in line and good. She is in the 50th percentile in most metrics. She is obviously well loved by her foster mom.

For now she will be called Baby K. She is currently 4 months old and doing very well with her foster mom. She has chubby cheeks and a head full of hair.

We now settle in to wait again. It could be up to 14 months before we travel to bring her home. Kiya is in love already. She sees her picture and says baby sister. Melts my heart every time. We showed her the picture right before we left to head to Chicago. When we stopped at the oasis for food, she asked if we were picking up baby sister now. So we told her no. I think the adoption will allow for a more open dialogue about Kiya's adoption. I know she will be a great big sister. Though this morning we asked her if she would share her toys and she said, "no my toys. not K's toys."

Never dreamed I would be blessed enough to be a mom to two beautiful girls, Kiya and baby K.

Time to shop for her first care package :)

2 years ago

Two years ago at approximately 12:53pm, after 11 months, 2 weeks and 1 day of waiting, my life forever changed with one phone call. The call that said I was finally going to be a mom after 6 long years of infertility, domestic adoption nightmares and the phrase it's a girl made all of that pain a distant memory.

Sweet Yewibdar, was a mere 5 1/2 weeks old and a very tiny 6lbs. Here is the first picture we saw of our sweet baby girl. I to this day have this picture near me in my purse and on my nightstand. 

 Here is our sweet big girl 2 years later. I can't believe it.

She went from not being on any growth chart with lots of talk about how small her head circumference was to a full fledged toddler in the 50th percentile for weight, 83rd percentile for height and 60th percentile for head circumference.

She is a walking, talking amazing little girl. She has so much to say and can be quite bossy at times but one thing has never changed. You can see the fight in her eyes even at 5 1/2 weeks. She has that same fight today and it has served her so well and always will.

So while I celebrate the joy that came to my life on this date 2 years ago, I remember the heartache experienced by another mother. That will stay with me. I owe so much more that gratitude to this woman. Her strength made my dreams come true and I hope one day I can share with her just how amazing our daughter is.

Toast at my hose

We are toasting Rebekah and family. They have a daughter Dagmawit. We couldn't be there to toast in person so we are toasting at our hose. (No that is not a spelling error, you just have to be in the know to know that hose is a VERY important word said by a very important person)

Dagmawit,

While I don't know your family personally, yet. I do know that they love you dearly. Enjoy all that is Wisconsin, especially the summers. And who knows, maybe you will like snow too. We are wishing you all the best and we are praying for you. We are also saying prayers for those that are caring for you in Ethiopia and for those that cared and loved you in your earlier years.

Best wishes!!! Fingers crossed for a speedy and successful court date and travel date soon to follow.

Referralversary

One year ago, I was minding my own business. It was my day off and I was in full nesting mode. The project for the day was to shred years of useless paperwork. I made myself a cup of coffee and planned to hang out in my sweats and get cozy with the paper shredder. All was going well and then.....

At 12:53pm the phone rang. I was sitting on the floor with a big bag of shredded paper and jumped up to answer it. I saw on the caller ID that it was from a 651 area code. Was this it?? Could it be??? I went to answer the phone and got all static. I freaked out and ran downstairs to get the other phone but it was too late. By this time I was pretty much hysterical. I was trying to call the number back and then my cell phone rang, and if you haven't guessed yet. It was "the call". The call we had been waiting 11 months, 2 weeks and 1 day for but whose counting :)

I was trying to frantically write down everything my specialist said but got lost after "It's a girl". Thank goodness for email or I would have missed it. I was shaking and crying and saying a lot of uh huhs and okays in between tears. We finally had a name and a story. I got off the phone with my specialist and immediately called my husband. Our specialist had emailed both of us the referral info. We agreed to open it together. And when we did this is what we saw, our baby girl Yewibdar.

Her name means "most beautiful one" in Amharic and we couldn't have agreed more. She was 5 1/2 weeks old and weighed in at 6lbs and was 19.5 inches long. She had so much hair and the tiniest little feet I have ever seen. She still does have these completely adorable tiny little feet. We quickly scanned through all the info but just kept going back to the pictures. There were two. Here is the other one.

I have slept with this exact picture by my bed for a year. It is also prominently shown in our living room. I at that time wondered if she still made that concerned face. She does. I couldn't tell if she was lost, sad, confused, annoyed, mad or something else. Now we get the face when she is overwhelmed.

I can't believe it has been a whole year. So much has changed. I am a mother, my baby girl is fastly becoming a big girl and all the while one thing has never changed. I have never for one second since I saw that sweet face ever doubted that I was in love. My broken road to parenthood was no longer broken as of January 6, 2009. I will never forget where I was, what I was doing or for that matter what I was wearing (my gray sweats and pink AHOPE shirt).

But most importantly, my life changed that day. I had a daughter. A daughter that was half way around the world and I was months away from holding her in my arms. Yet I had two pictures, a name and a story to keep me going. This was a watershed moment in my life.

So today I pause to look back and remember the feelings, the fears, the excitement, the sadness that all came with this one phone call. It wasn't just merely a phone call, it was a door opening to the rest of my life. My daughter is the most precious, beautiful and wonderful gift. A gift I am eternally grateful for and I have no words to adequately express my love for her or for her Ethiopian mother. One phone call and a year later and I wouldn't change a thing.

The day before

I wrote this on my blog the day before my entire world was turned upside down. I went back and re-read this now that it is one year later.

"Peanut, someday when you read this I hope you don't think your mama is crazy. Ok, well she is a little. Crazy in love with you the baby she hasn't even seen much less met yet. Her dream is to be the best mama she can be. It has been an almost 6 year process for her dream of motherhood to come true and she can't wait for that phone to ring telling her that her prayers have been answered and that you peanut are destined to be her little one. Waiting for you has not been easy but I know every second of the wait will be worth it when I can see your face and better yet when I can hold you in my arms. Never did I feel more at peace then when we decided to adopt from Ethiopia. It was as if the stars aligned perfectly. I knew. I just knew that my baby would be born in Ethiopia and in my heart."

A year changes a lot of things. I think I still might be a little crazy okay a lot crazy but I am a mom now so it is okay. I wrote this before I was a mother and every day I wake up knowing that isn't going to change and it is the best feeling. I peek into her room and she her sleeping so sweetly and know that it was meant to be. Our road to our peanut was still broken on this day last year, little did we know what was about to happen.

Stay tuned...sappy post coming tomorrow with pictures.

It's a GIRL!!!!!

The day has finally arrived. 11 months, 2 weeks and 1 day and we are proud to say we have been referred a beautiful 6 week old baby girl. I am so in love already. As stated before I can't post her picture or her name as she is not legally ours yet so you will just have to trust me that she is the most beautiful little girl ever!

So everyone wants to know where I was and what I was doing so before I forget I thought I should write it all down.

I was in the office doing some cleaning and shredding. Nesting away as I have been for months. I heard the phone ring and I jumped up to go get it. I ran to the bedroom and saw on the caller ID Children's Home Society and I screamed and tried to answer the phone. For whatever reason our home phone wasn't working and all I heard was static. I quick ran downstairs to grab the other phone but by then I had missed the call. I was desperately trying to figure out how to call back when my cell phone rang.

This was it. This was the call I have been waiting for. Today, January 6th, I found out that our daughter is in Ethiopia and she is ready for us to come get here. Wait did I say daughter??? I for so long had been telling myself we were having a son and I was so fine with that. A daughter?? I can't believe it. I am going to have a little girl. My prayers really have been answered. I heard only about every other word our specialist said. I was crying. Tears of utter joy for sure. I couldn't believe it. I was in total shock. Our local SW was here in the morning to update our home study and she and our specialist just missed each other on the phone. I didn't think today would be the day but boy am I glad it is.

She is 6 weeks old and truly a little peanut. The nickname fits her perfectly. I wish I could hop on a plane right now and scoop her into my arms and tell that she is so loved. I can't. I have a few months before I can do that. I know that she is being well taken care of while we wait to go get her. Many blessings and prayers to the nannies and doctors looking after all our little ones.

I think someone better pinch me, this is really happening right?? I am actually going to be a Mom. What a glorious day this has been. Thanks to all who have been such amazing cheerleaders through this whole process. You know who you are. You have kept me sane as much as that is possible. I can't wait to share her picture so come on court date.

PS--I am wearing my pink AHOPE shirt so maybe that was a sign :)