What everybody wants to know

Me - circa the mid-80's

This is gonna sound kind of dramatic to some of you, but to others it might totally hit home. Before we were blessed to be parents, I felt sometimes like a human rendition of Swiss cheese -- all holey and empty. I was born to be a mother. Since I was a little girl, I have never wanted to really "be" anything but a momma full-time. I had a roommate in college who got really mad at me one time because she couldn't believe I didn't want anything more for myself that "just to be a mother." Recalling her exact words makes me want to shudder a little. I can't think of anything more difficult than motherhood, but I can't think of anything more rewarding either.

Me with my own mother - circa 1985

Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in my field, since the payment is pure love.
-Mildred B. Vermont

When someone who was born to be a mother is forbidden to get pregnant and told that doing so will likely end in fatality, the room begins to spin and voices turn into echos. Hot tears flow. It feels like the world has ended. As with any large trial in life, it feels as though humility clobbers you smack dab in the middle of the forehead, and you crumble to your knees. A coincidence that you end up on your knees? I think not. God's all encompassing grace and love reach out and offer you a hand. Sometimes you take it and sometimes you choose to wallow a while before you decide to get up and take a step into the dark.

While walking the dark path, one step at a time, sometimes there are bright oases of light and warmth that urge you onward. Sometimes, you even see a light in the distance. When journeying along the path of adoption, you might hope eventually to arrive at that light-filled place where miracles happen and dreams come true (or like Katie in the movie Horton Hears a Who describes, "In my world everyone is a pony, and they all eat rainbows, and poop butterflies.") -- for us that dream place is called parenthood. We're even okay with the fact that the poop won't be butterflies!

Some days, you might decide to stop and ask "are we there yet?" again. You might have to stop for directions. Then, you might finally get to the point where you learn to appreciate the journey, and have joy in it even. For us, that was when we finally seem to get the call, the text, or the e-mail that acts like a road map or sign, letting us know our next stop is finally parenthood! Not only are you full of joy and peace that the darkness might finally be passing, but your heart seems to grow for all the love you now feel for a certain woman who is carrying, or has carried, the child that will be yours. Outside the adoption community, I believe birth parents are sorely misunderstood. I could write volumes about my opinion on the subject. Above all, I want to convey the message that in this space, my space, birth parents are respected and honored and loved. Please respect that. Please know that the women who chose life for their babies and chose Shane and I as their loving parents are our biggest heroes. There are never words enough to thank your child's birth mother, or if given the opportunity, a birth father or extended birth family, in the way they deserve. And in the end, I know they didn't choose adoption for me, but for that baby and how much they loved him or her.

Carter - one week old

When Carter was born, it took 15 months before we felt the pull to search for another baby. However, after Ruby was born, we still felt like another baby was on the way. We have enjoyed her stages as she's grown, and we've taken every chance to snuggle and love on her. It's not that we didn't feel the same special bond with her, we just knew our hearts needed to remain open because it was gonna be faster this time. Shane and I had discussed it many times. I would say we've even made more of an effort to love on her now because we felt baby three would come fast. Those feelings we had were right.

Carter meeting Ruby for the first time at the airport

Just about two months ago (on the exact day that Ruby turned 9 months old), I contacted CJ's birth grandma, Jolene. I usually try to let her know whenever I am sending something so she knows it's coming. We wanted to have flowers delivered to J for Birth Mother's Day and Mother's Day, and I wanted to make sure someone would be home when the flowers were going to arrive. We worked it out and I scheduled the delivery (with my favorite Provo flower shop, of course -- love you CCF ladies!).

Later that night, Shane and I were cuddled on the couch together with the kids, just before we put them to bed. Sometimes Carter likes to watch a video of Goodnight Gorilla or How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? together instead of reading his bedtime story. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and wondered who would be texting. I was surprised to see that it was a message from Jolene. We always love to hear from CJ's birth family, and I was excited to hear from her again so soon after just texting earlier that day. I quickly unlocked my phone and opened the message.

I was humbled, overwhelmed, delighted, and blown-away all at once to learn that our sweet J is pregnant and has decided on making an adoption plan again. She wanted to know if, even though Ruby is still so small, we would be ready to add to our family again before the end of the year! I was moved to tears. I felt my heart swell with love, respect, and again, so much humility that J would consider placing with us again. Shane heard my quiet sob and asked immediately what was the matter. I could hardly get words out, but blurted, "J is pregnant and wants to place with us again!" He just held me tight and we cried together for a minute before I handed him my phone so he could read the message himself. We instantly felt peace and grinned ear-to-ear at one another. We responded right away, explaining what we were feeling and how excited we were. Since then, although I couldn't have imagined it possible, my love has only grown for J. I hope and pray that she knows how truly we love her and always will.

When I was talking on the phone to Jolene shortly thereafter, I tried to describe how humbled we were that Jesse would consider choosing to place with us again. I told her I guess we must have done something right! She responded that we had done way more than something right. My heart melted. Heavenly Father has blessed and guided us along the way. I hope our relationship will only get stronger as we welcome and love this baby, as his or her birth family and adoptive family, together.

And that, my friends, is how we were chosen again so quickly. We decided not to announce until J had been to the doctor and we had a due date to share. Today is the ultrasound and we are so anxious to hear what the baby's gender is. We think about J and baby every day and pray often for them. Carter's prayers are the sweetest. He prays every prayer for J by name, and adds in the baby when he remembers. He talks a lot about when the baby will come and whether it will be a boy or girl. He has already given us his opinion about certain names, too! Ruby became interested in baby dolls on her own by trying to swipe them from other kids, so we bought her a little one from Target that she totes around everywhere now. One day, Carter kept taking Ruby's doll away, and I finally thought to ask him if he wanted a baby doll, too. He got the biggest grin on his face and nodded. After a day of particularly good behavior, we picked him up his own and now they share and love to "help" with the babies.


Thank you for sharing in our excitement as we await this third baby's arrival!

This picture was taken in April 2008. Carter was not yet two years old. If you know Carter at all, you know he never holds still for very long! Imagine what a wonderful surprise it was when he climbed right up on J's lap at our visit and remained there, snuggled in with her on the swing, for a good 10-20 minutes at least. It is a memory I hold very dear.

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The Background

***disclaimer***

This post is long. It is the background information we believe you might find interesting and pertinent before you learn of our story of being chosen again. If you feel you have heard it all before, and are close enough to us that we've already shared each detail, please feel free to just glance through or skip this post all together. Okay, here we go.


Our wedding day - August 3, 2001

This story begins much further back than you probably would expect. We had only been married a few months when we first decided adoption was to be the way our family would grow. October 2001 brought hard news and loss of hope completely at first. Hope quickly blossomed again as we felt compelled to and happily pursued beginning the adoption process. Hope was then squashed right out from underneath us again when we learned we must wait until we'd been married two years to begin the adoption process. Two years seems like so much less time now than when we were 21 and 22 and had just begun our life together. Two years seemed eternities away at that point!

Fast-forward to July 2003. I was tired. I got a lot of migraine-type headaches and I felt like I was aging really fast. I'd barely graduated from massage school and passed my national certification exam in between visits to the ER. But my enthusiasm for impending motherhood was not waning! We had our LDS Family Services intake appointment set for the week of our second anniversary (August 3rd).

I followed my cardiologist's advice and set up an appointment with Dr. Laks at UCLA Medical Center to see if he thought my heart might need surgery at some future point. I remember on that trip to California being surprised at how little energy I had. When we went to the beach, I was winded just walking halfway to the water and had to sit down in the sand. I was ready to get out of the heat and go home before long. We went to Disneyland and I only lasted a few hours! I couldn't bear to just leave, so instead we rode all the slow rides and sat a lot in the shade.

Shane and I were both anxious to get back to Utah for our long-awaited appointment at the agency. Then I met Dr. Laks and learned it was imperative I have surgery ASAP, or I might reach the point of congestive heart failure very soon. I was just 22 years old. Our trip was extended to accommodate further testing and appointments at UCLA. Any wind in my sails was gone as I called to cancel our appointment at LDS Family Services. I remember feeling crushed all over again about not getting the righteous desires of my heart -- my enlarged, out of control, holey heart!

A few days after open-heart surgery - December 30, 2003

I had open-heart surgery five months later. As soon as we could, we drove home to Utah. As soon after that as I could get dressed and walk, we set up an appointment for another intake meeting at the agency. I remember still having big dark circles under my eyes and IV bruises in my arms and hands. I would say that 6.5 years later, I am still recovering in a lot of ways, but my clicking mechanical heart valve is a daily reminder of the miracles of modern medicine!

October 2005 - Living in Provo, Utah

Next stop: approximately October 2005. Finally, after years of "waiting,"attending all the agency-sponsored workshops and events we could, and working several part-time jobs each, we managed to scrape together the money to officially turn in our paperwork while we were still college students. We weren't really sure how we would fund the adoption costs from there, but felt peace and knew it was the right time.

With our friend Melanie after Shane's graduation - April 2006

Six months later, in April 2006, Shane graduated and we found ourselves packing up and getting ready to move to AZ, as Shane had accepted a job offer. Between boxes, we took a break to run over to the agency. We were supposed to sign a release allowing our file to be transferred to the LDS Family Services office in Mesa. When we arrived, our caseworker Katherine (the 4th we had been assigned to since our first appointment) broadly grinned as she explained mysteriously that we no longer needed to sign the paperwork. She said that she'd be in touch very soon and sent us on our way. Maybe it's a good thing we were completely occupied with moving at the moment so we didn't go crazy with speculation. It definitely helped that we both felt a great deal of peace about things and knew we didn't need to worry.

We moved on May 2nd. One week later, late in the evening on May 9th, we got the news we'd waited so long for. Within days, we were on our way back to Utah to meet the courageous, loving, beautiful woman who had chosen us to be Carter's parents. We'd prayed for years for her and for this baby. I hold our first face-to-face meeting among the most treasured hours of my life, as I do our brief few minutes with Ruby's birth mother. I have no doubt angels accompanied us on those occasions.

Well, this blog pretty much was born around the time we moved to Arizona, so if you've known us that long, you know the story from there. If we are newer friends, here is the brief summary: We returned to Utah twice that Summer and Carter was born in July. We brought him home to Arizona after ICPC cleared. We were able to go back to Utah a few months later, at Thanksgiving time, for our first visit with Carter's birth mother and her family (as well as spending Thanksgiving with our families, who both happen to live in the same neighborhood in Utah). We have, since then, visited at least once or twice a year with Carter's birth family, when we're in town. Otherwise, we have kept in touch via e-mail, texting, our blog, and occasional calls, packages, and letters. We always try to make sure we send flowers for Birth Mother's Day and Mother's Day in May. Last year we we able to celebrate Carter's birthday with not only most of our siblings and our parents, but Carter's birth family too! We had so much fun that we're going to celebrate together again this year.

Carter with his birth mom - August 2008

Some people question openness in adoption, but the more we learn and hear about it, the more we are thankful it is an option. We embrace and are grateful for any time we are able to have with Carter's birth mom and birth family. We adore them all! We truly believe more people to love a child is nothing but wonderful. Every situation is different. Every adoptive couple and every birth mother have different expectations and needs. As long as it is a healthy relationship for all, the blessings of adoption just seem to keep coming! I think everyone involved also has to know that as a child grows up in an adoptive family, he or she may express a desire to have more or less contact with a birth family, and that this is all really about the child, so those feelings should be validated and the level of contact should be reevaluated throughout the years to help the child feel comfortable. As long as you go into open adoption knowing that, I think everyone just wants to celebrate that little life as he or she grows and becomes a beautiful child, loved by many, with an amazing story of miracles surrounding his or her birth!

Now we're ready to tell you a little more about baby #3.
Tomorrow.

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The Luckiest

The number one question everyone has for us right now seems to be how we were chosen so fast again. Ruby is just 10 months old! The babies will be only 15 months apart. I know! Before I tell you all the story of how we came to be "expecting" another angel baby so soon, I want to share something with you that Shane and I have been really thinking a lot about. I just read an amazing post this week on my friend Emrie's blog. I'd like to share a small bit of it with you (I hope you don't mind, Emrie!). I've been thinking about it a lot. I think she put it so beautifully, so simply. Emrie and her husband, Luke, just had their fourth placement...in four years!!! Emrie really put my current feelings into words so well:

I don’t know why we have been so blessed to have our kids join us so quick. We’re a little of an anomaly in the adoption community. We have so many friends that have been searching for their kids for years while we’ve been placed with 4 in the last 4 years. I’m overcome with joy for our beautiful spirits and their courageous birth moms. I know that these children were meant to find us. I know that we never stopped working to find them. I also have the faith that you will find yours if you continue to search for them.

Even though we looked far longer for Carter and for Ruby than we have this time around for this baby, I feel the same way, and here we are on our way to having three children, four and under! We wanted to adopt the first time for nearly 5 years, from the time we made the decision until Carter was placed with us by his loving birth mother. We began our search for Ruby when Carter was 15 months old. It took 22 months, a failed match, and several possible situations coming up and falling through until we received that amazing call last August 6th that Ruby was being born! I feel blessed beyond measure, giddy with excitement that this time around we have been chosen before we've even officially started the "finding" process again (although we have remained certified for the last 5 years straight just in case).

That said, as we celebrate, so many couples are still hoping for their first child, or maybe their second or third, and we ache a little as we share our good news for those still searching. We sincerely hope you all know we love you and pray for you. We tell people about you and that you are hoping to adopt. We share your pass along cards any chance we get. We keep them in the car, in our wallets and bags, just in case. We think of you often. We put your names on the temple prayer rolls. We add "Baby (your last name) and birth mother" and we really hope your dreams will come true soon. I know it doesn't feel like it now, but we have felt the pain and ache of empty arms. We talk about what you must be going through and try to think of ways we might be helpful. Please know that we don't mean any pain as we announce this joyous news. We can't wait to rejoice with you when the time comes!

Each of us has our own path. Each journey is unique. Something as sensitive and personal as wanting to become a parent when it seems like the cards are stacked against us is SO HARD. There are feelings of comparison, judgment, confusion, inadequacy, unrighteousness, etc, etc. Just because one couple is chosen in a month and one couple still isn't chosen after years, there should never be fear of judgment of that longer-waiting couple's worthiness or desire. Those feelings never come from Father. He wants dearly for us to have those righteous desires, but knows our timing is based on limited vision. He won't give us what we want in our timing when we knows what we need in His!

All I really know is that our loving Father in Heaven knows what we need. He will provide what we need when we need it. That doesn't always seem to coincide with what we want when we want it! The minute my peaceful newborn son Carter was placed in my arms, I felt all my years of pain melt away, and for a moment I saw with perfect clarity that His hand was clearly there through all my trials of the previous five long years! It all suddenly made sense and I realized a tremendous foundation had been carefully constructed for that moment -- that beautiful, most sacred moment in a corner hospital classroom.

I shared a passage from Kerstin Daynes' book, Infertility: Help, Hope, and Healing, in my Change of Heart post last week. LOVE that book! I have underlined nearly. every. word. of the first six chapters. I'm not exaggerating! I wish I would have gotten this book as a wedding present! ;) Seriously though, if only I could have known I was not alone, that I was not a failure as a wife and as a woman. I wish I had been able to learn those essential things earlier on that I have learned...but now that I know how my story is turning out, I wouldn't have it any other way. Father has blessed my life with so many opportunities for growth that have prepared me for motherhood and for the chance to serve others.

In summary, I know I am lucky. I know I am blessed. I am FULL of gratitude and humility. I know Shane is too. We've discussed this topic at length and really worried about hurting feelings with this announcement. Thank you for sharing our happy moments with us! I want to share part of the lyrics from a certain song. They are on my mind as I write this tonight.

The Luckiest
by Ben Folds Five

I don't get many things right the first time
In fact, I am told that a lot
Now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls
Brought me here

And where was I before the day
That I first saw your lovely face?
Now I see it everyday
And I know

That I am
I am
I am The luckiest

Carter Jesse, about one week old

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Matching Monday 11/16/09

See Mrs. R's Matching Monday post today for what's going on with the Matching Monday effort. Thanks! Hooray for Matching Mondays!

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Matching Monday 11/9/09

See the Matching Monday post over at the r house for new info on how we can help children find their families and to see the kids featured today.

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Introducing Matching Mondays -- Arizona Edition

Mrs. R over at The R House features waiting children around the country every single Monday. We want to join in, beginning for National Adoption Month, and post waiting children every Monday too.

Our hearts have been changed again and again as we have learned more about foster care and adoption. We feel that we might one day be blessed to add to our family through foster adoption.

I hope that as myself and others join Mrs. R in her efforts, even more hearts will be changed and more children will find their forever families (and more families will find their forever children!). Join us!

Below are Mrs. R's featured kids for the week followed by a local AZ waiting child that we are featuring this week.

are these your children?

Wisconsin
Jamela & Jazzlin ages 12 & 11.
Jamela is beautiful ten-year-old girl who is healthy and at an appropriate grade level. She is a sensitive, out-spoken and articulate girl who isn’t afraid to share her thoughts and feelings. Jamela likes to keep active by playing with other kids and running around outside or roller skating.

This little girl has a lot of spunk! Jazzlin is very easy going, affectionate and smiley. She has been described as a delight to be around and as having a carefree attitude. Jazzlin has some questions, but is curious about adoption.


California
Mariana age 3.
This adorable little girl is Marianna! She's enjoys musical toys, is interested in what is happening around her, and loves interacting with other children. Marianna mimics the sounds she hears, but does not yet have words at this point. She will blow kisses, and clap her hands when prompted. She now eats fruits and vegetables. Marianna has a mild hearing loss, and is making efforts to stand and take steps. Marianna's future family must be able to maintain the medical services that she needs, and work with the service providers that are following her progress. Marianna needs a safe, nurturing family that will give her the supervision and attention she needs, and enjoy her wonderful loving personality.


Utah
Ashley age 13.
Bella, Edward, Jacob, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett, Esme, Carlisle, Charlie... If you happen to be uncertain about who these people are and where they come from, no worries, Ashley can fill you in. She is an avid reader and loves the \"Twilight\" series by Stephanie Myer. She is currently reading it for the third time! Alongside Ashley\'s passion for good books is her great interest in music. She also quite enjoys socializing and hanging out with friends; she's fun to talk to.This girl with the cute personality, bright mind, captivating smile and lovable spirit wants very much to be adopted by her forever family and to find a home where she can be accepted, loved, and nurtured.


Utah
Wyatt age 13.
Wyatt is a wonderful young man who wants a loving family. This great teen is very “into” his I-Pod and has quite the talent for singing. Wyatt enjoys Naruto Cards and playing video games (especially Wii and Playstation.) He loves to read, so much so, that he is often reminded to put his books down and go to sleep. Contention and Wyatt’s loving nature don’t mix. He has a compassionate nature and wants others to be happy and get along. Japanese culture is of great interest to Wyatt; he dreams of visiting there someday.


Arizona
Cecilia, Age 10
Meet Cecelia a nine year old little girl that lights up any room that she enters. She has a heart of gold and can't wait to have a forever family. Cecelia loves to play outdoors with animals and especially the bugs. She loves to ride her bike and will ride for hours. Cecelia is very enthusiastic and always willing to help. Cecelia is very creative and likes to make up her own rules to games. She loves to be around all animals, especially horses and would someday love to learn how to ride them.

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The Nitty Gritty Details

Many of you have already heard the news, but some of you haven't. This has all come to be so quickly and without notice, so please forgive us if you haven't heard yet!!! Sorry this is such a novel, but it's such an amazing story, we wanted to give you the details! If you don't want to read the novel, scroll down the the next posts for the basic details! :-)

Thursday afternoon, we got a call through our toll free number from an anonymous woman asking if we were still interested in adopting and if Michigan was too far away. I replied that it was fine and that yes, we were still hoping to adopt. She asked if she could text our number to her daughter's friend who happened to be in labor at the hospital at the time! I told her we would be happy to have her do so! However, I sort of just thought I would never hear from anyone about it again.

Boy, was I wrong! About ten minutes later, I got a call from the girl in the hospital in labor! She told me she was dilated to a 5 and wanted to know if we were interested in adopting the baby. I told her we certainly would be! I asked if she had ever seen a picture of us or our profile or anything and she said no. We pieced together later that the birth mother's friend just found us and thought we would be a good family for the baby! I asked if she wanted to know a little about us and she said she guessed she would so I just told her the basics -- our ages, that we live in AZ, and that Shane is an electrical engineer while I am a stay-at-home momma to my son, Carter, who just turned three. I told her we have an open adoption with our son's birth momma and she said she would want it completely closed. I said we would respect her wishes but that we'd want her to get in touch with us through the agency if she ever wanted contact and we'd welcome it. She basically said she just wanted to know how soon we could get there and I realized she just wanted to pick us without any more discussion! I told her I'd have my caseworker call her right away. I called our caseworker and she was almost to the agency. She called me back a few minutes later, I gave her the information, and she called the girl in the hospital after she arrived at the agency. Long story short, I was on and off the phone the rest of the night as they tried to get an LDS Family Services case worker to the hospital and we began to look at flights and make arrangements in case we really were going to do this!

As you can imagine, it was a stressful but exciting time! We ended up hearing from the caseworker, Doug, at around 10:00 pm AZ time and he informed us that the baby girl had been born around 10:00 Eastern time (3 hour difference) and he had finally met with the mother and he said she really wanted to place the baby and wanted us to get there ASAP. We agreed it was best for us to fly out the next morning at 6:00 am in order to arrive at 1:00 pm in Detroit.

That we did! We arranged for Carter to have a babysitter in the morning and then to stay with Joe and Claudia this week. Another caseworker picked us up from the Detroit airport and took us to the hospital where Doug was already meeting with the hospital social worker, Gina. We nervously waited half an hour just outside the doors of the nursery, knowing our girl was in there -- talk about torture!!! When Doug finally came out to get us, he said the birth mother was there and willing to meet us just for a few minutes, but we couldn't take any pictures. We walked in and there she was! We hugged and chatted for a few minutes. We told her how grateful we were she was willing to meet and how grateful we are for her placing the baby with us. We told her we'd always love, honor and respect her and asked if there was anything she wanted the baby to know. She said just that she wanted to find a good family to love and take care of her and she was so glad we came so fast to be there. We promised we'd love and care for her always and we'd teach her that her birth mother placed her in love and wanted the best for her. And then she was gone.

When Gina the hospital social worker came back from seeing the sweet birth mom out, she asked if we had seen the baby yet and we said NO, and we're DYING to! She took our drivers licenses and copied them for the baby's file and then got us into the nursery and brought our little angel baby over to us with the back of her head facing us! She had some brown hair and that was all we could tell! Well then she turned her around and we saw the most beautiful little face with petite, feminine, sweet features...just beautiful! And she looked to us like her amazing birth mother! She was just peaceful and calm and content and pursed her perfect, ruby red little lips in the cutest way when she stretched! Her most prominent features right away were her cute little up-turned nose and the cleft in her chin. We were blown away by her perfection and could finally see what our baby looked like. Until then, it was so hard to imagine what she might look like since we didn't meet her birth family ahead of time.

Another long story made short: for the next three hours we just took turns holding her and falling in love even more with her, even though we were instantly smitten from the first moment!

We had not eaten all day and it was 6:00 pm, so we finally left and went to check in at the hotel and eat dinner. We went back over to the hospital via the hotel shuttle after dinner though because we couldn't stand being away from her! We stayed until just before the shuttle service ended for the night and reluctantly left her again.

One other thing to mention is that we had decided on the way to Detroit that we liked Lucy, Leila, and Molly as names and then after meeting the baby, we kept trying to make one of those names work and none of them seemed to fit at the end of our first day with her. So we went online and tried to look at names to find out if there were any other names we liked that we'd forgotten about. We were hoping her name would jump right out at us and IT DID! I saw Ruby on the list of the 1,000 most popular names form 2008 and I instantly knew that was her name. I told Shane as we pulled up a picture of her on the computer and he got a big grin on his face. We both knew that fit her perfectly! We had been told at the hospital that the baby's birth mother chose to name her Jane Lyn. We already loved Jane for a middle name and Ruby Jane was just right for her!

Because we only got a single hour of sleep the night we found out about the baby (Thursday night), we ended up sleeping until 11:30 this morning! We got to the hospital by 2:00 and stayed with our precious Ruby Jane until around 8:00 pm. We had the shuttle take us to Target to get a few baby girl things we thought we might need if they discharge her tomorrow, and then we came to the hotel. We are just feeling SO blessed! We even had a little bonus miracle tonight and feel even more thrilled!

Okay, I know it was long, but there is the story so far. We are not sure if we will get home soon or not. MI law is very difficult for adoptive families and I heard today about a family that was here from out of state for a couple months! The good news is, the agency and the attorney will do everything they can to use AZ documents and get us out of Michigan ASAP. Best-case scenario would probably put us headed back to AZ by the end of this coming week. Please join us in praying that things can be expedited and they will accept the AZ documents and we can get Ruby home to meet her big brother, and Ruby's birth mom can have the placement taken care of and focus on moving on.

Thank you, all of you, for all the thoughts and prayers and well-wishes! We just feel like we are in an alternate universe right now and can hardly believe the good fortune and blessings we are experiencing!

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