The Gift of Our Daughter!

My soul is overflowing

2009-08-08T23:01:00.002-04:00

I tell ya. Went to church tonight and God was definitely speaking to me through the service and the worship. The topic was "Just Say Yes: When you Don't Understand."

Our minister talked about God asking Abraham to slay Isaac as a sacrifice and I thought about how hard that would be to make that choice especially since he and Sarah had wanted a child for so long and God finally blessed them with Isaac when they were very old. I am not sure that I could have been as faithful as Abraham. I thought about how hard our journey has been to create our family and how I wished it hadn't been this difficult and all of the things we have gone through along our journey to create a family, outsider's preconceived notions of what a family should like (and ours doesn't match their image at all, etc and how this disqualified us from even being considered to adopt domestically in our home state). As I tell our son, everyone in our immediate family is brown except Mommy and I am pink!

I thought about how I believed we were led to adopt from Ethiopia from the beginning, but we shyed away initially due to the prejudices Ray and I had faced already being a mixed couple, but something in me, call it motherly intuition had a feeling our daughter was there, but we had to try to kick down 3 more doors--Guatemala, Nepal, Vietnam, and finally Ethiopia to finally arrive in Ethiopia where our beautiful, smart, wonderful daughter was there waiting all the time.

God had perfect timing. If we had been earlier to Ethiopia, she wouldn't be our daughter! So, I learned the lesson of making sure we say "Yes" to our God when he is leading us. I also became aware of how much I am truly grateful to be chosen to be our children's mother. God picked them out perfectly for me and my husband. As I tell them, I am your mother, and God was waiting to decide what family you were going to be with and he chose us and he chose you to be our children and I am so glad he did!

I am going to post the songs we sang tonight as they were truly uplifting and got me through some of the darkest days of our adoption process. Now, that our children are ours, I definitely know that God's hand was in this all the time, I am so embarrassed for lacking the faith at the time and not trusting that he had it all planned. Now, I know to trust in him. Took me 37 years, infertility and a brain tumor, but I think I am finally getting it!:-)

A little delayed post, but Teagan is HOME!

2009-07-20T23:04:00.003-04:00

We arrived back in the United States on May 9th, the night before Mother's Day. I can't think of a better Mother's Day gift! She is beautiful, busy and adjusting well. I will post a few pics so people can see our new family!

Ethiopian "American Baby!"

2009-04-07T23:19:00.002-04:00

So happy to finally post that Teagan is finally our Ethiopian "American Baby!" My cell phone rang today with the ring I have for BFAS, Dave Matthew's "American Baby" song! Man, I love that song! It rang that tone when they called us to tell us we had been referred Teagan and it rang again today!

Haile called me this afternoon and I really thought it was going to be him calling me telling me that our court date which was "scheduled" for April 9th had been rescheduled, or worse that we didn't even make it to court! He said, "You passed." I said, "Passed what? (Totally clueless what he was talking about since I thought our court date was for Thursday, April 9th, and I had everyone geared up to pray on Wednesday, April 8th). He said, "You passed court!" I said, "What?" He said, "Yeah, you passed court, "S" is finally yours!" I was driving by myself and I started screaming, "I can't believe it, I can't believe it, she's ours!" He said, "Yes, it's over!" I am still sitting here 10 hours later in a state of shock that she is finally our little girl--our 2.5 year journey through 4 countries has finally brought us together with our daughter! WOW! I have to pray and say a special prayer of thanks to the Lord tonight! WHOA!

Anyway, hubby is out of town for work and we were planning on texting/talking on Thursday when we thought our court date was. So, he was the first person I called. I called and left a message on his phone, "Honey, you have a daughter! Teagan is ours!" Not sure what else I said, but I know I broke down and started crying tears of joy and happiness and relief that our adoption was final! I couldn't believe it, but the tears just kept on coming! Never been that emotional any other time besides my wedding and when we first met our son when we adopted him. WOW! I have to pinch myself, we have a daughter! I was starting to wonder if this journey would ever end and we would bring her home! It is and we will be home together by Mother's Day! Can't think of a better gift!

Court Date Here We Come!!

2009-03-27T17:47:00.002-04:00

We thought our court date was going to be on March 31st, but the Ethiopian government made a change to our court date. It is now scheduled for Thursday, April 9th. We are hopeful that we will pass on the first try and bring Teagan Elizabeth home somewhere around the end of April.

We have gotten new pictures of her and boy she is beautiful! Of course, I am her mother, so I am a little biased. In the meantime, I am just now washing her clothes in Dreft and we have her room painted a really pretty lavender. So that gives us a little bit of time to get her curtains up, buy a white chest, and decorate her room.

This process has been such a long one to bring her home--almost 2.5 years and 4 countries later, that I didn't feel like having a baby's room decorated with no baby. It's just too hard to have a room that's ready and no baby to sleep in the room. So, much like my wedding day (which coincidentally I had no doubts of it happening;-), I was out shopping for toiletries in my veil and hair piece at noon on my wedding day and getting married at 5 P.M), I guess we will be preparing for Teagan right up until the last minute. I guess I kind of just don't want to jinx it by preparing everything without having passed court yet. Crazy, I know, but this journey has been LONG--REALLY LONG! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers on Thursday, April 9th. We would really appreciate it!

OUUUUUUUUUUUUCH!!

2009-03-11T17:59:00.002-04:00

Well, it looks as if I am going to travel to go bring Teagan home! We were planning on having her escorted, but that will add another 5-6 months to the process, and can't bear for her to sit in the orphanage that long without us, or have us be here without her for another 5-6 months! Court is scheduled for March 31st. We are hoping for first time "GO!" Really hoping and praying!

So, today, I got my Hepatitis A and B shot and have to complete another round of Hepatitis A and 2 more rounds of Hepatitis B. Liam got his first shot of Hepatitis A and we think Ray is good with shots from the Army. I was able to get these at my doctor's office, too! YES!

Less than 3 Weeks to go to Court!

2009-03-11T17:56:00.002-04:00

Sorry, it has been so long since I have posted. Getting really jazzed now. We are just starting to get Teagen's room ready. Bought a glider and footstool for her room last week at the consignment sale...I say it is for her, but who I am I kidding it's really for mommy and daddy so we can snuggle our little bunny!

We have MOVEMENT!

2009-01-14T20:33:00.002-05:00

I can't say too much, but things are finally moving for our family and for Teagan! We have movement and hope to hear a court date in the next week or so. YESSSSSSSSS!!!!! (hear big sigh of relief!)

Still Waiting to Hear about Court Date

2008-12-30T09:53:00.003-05:00

Well, time is ticking on, and we are still waiting to hear about Teagan's court date. Definitely getting harder since we know who our baby is and we are just waiting for the details to happen so that we can be together as a family. Hopefully, we will hear soon, or maybe the court date has been scheduled already and we missed the email notification! One can hope, right!:-)

Pictures!!!!!!!

2008-12-17T08:15:00.005-05:00

We received pictures yesterday from one of the couples that travelled to pickup their little girl in Ethiopia last week. Thanks, Melissa G! Best Christmas present ever! It means so much that Melissa and Ryan and Melissa and Scott took the time to take pictures and video for us while there! We are grateful! It feels so good to know where Teagan is right now and that she is being well taken care of and that she is growing and doing well. Hold on, little one, we will be together soon, hopefully very soon. Hopefully, this week, we will hear when your case will go to court and we will be one step closer to being together as a family!

Court Filings

2008-12-12T09:22:00.003-05:00

Heard from our agency that they filed for court for us on Thursday, Dec. 11th. They post the court dates of the family outside the courtroom every Thursday. Ours was not posted yesterday, but hopefully will be posted by next Thursday, December 18th. That would be the best Christmas present, ever, to know that Teagan's court case is moving along and that it won't be long until we can hold and snuggle her. Our agency anticipates a court date approximately Mid to late February--hoping that it might be sooner.

We have a name!

2008-11-16T18:58:00.002-05:00

Well, we finally have a name for our baby girl! We are going to use one of her birthnames and call her Teagan Elizabeth. Teagan is very similar to one of her birth names, but spelled a little differently. It had been on our list at one point as we have been searching for an Irish/celtic name as we named our son a celtic name. It's weird, but my husband's grandfather on his mom's side immigrated to England from Ireland and we looked into the origin of the last name and it turns out it's Scottish and my grandfather's family immigrated to Canada from Scotland. Turn's out hubby's family and my family originated within about 50 miles or so of each other, based on the name origin... So, we decided to give each of our children celtic names along with their birth names. Teagan means "beautiful" in Irish and Elizabeth means "consecrated to God" which is what we were trying to convey. We are sooo grateful to God for Teagan and for Liam!

"American Baby" Has Arrived!!!!

2008-11-14T13:41:00.000-05:00

11/14/08----1:39 P.M.---She is beautiful! I went over to Ray’s office to view the pics and we were knocked over. She is beautiful. I knew, just like I knew when I saw our son’s picture for the first time that this was our baby—I just knew it! Immediately, I wanted to go grab her and snatch her up from Ethiopia….just like I did when we saw him. I wanted to hop the next plane to Guatemala…Now, I want to hop the next plane to Ethiopia!

Nervous and Excited!!!

2008-11-14T11:32:00.001-05:00

11/14/08 -----11:29 AM. Just talked to Angela and I am shaking as I sit and wait for her to send pictures and referral information…..I feel nervous like I did on Ray and my first date. I guess, it’s kind of like our first date--this is the first time we will “meet” our daughter! YAYYYYYYYY!!!!! I can't believe it. I have to pinch myself!

Adoption "Madness!"

2008-11-12T08:58:00.000-05:00

November 6, 2008

We are number 2 on the list as of Oct. 29th. As of Nov. 5th, I think we are #1. It’s hard to believe we will see our daughter’s face soon. I sit here and think “What will she look like?” “Does she know we are sitting here and can’t wait to meet her?” “Does she know how much I’ve longed for her the last 2 years?” “Does she know that God has truly guided us to her through the closure of 3 other countries?” I’m so excited, I even changed the ring tone for the adoption agency to “American Baby” by Dave Matthews!