Before birth

We started the lengthy and involved adoption process in January of 2009. We chose Bethany Christian Services because of our very similar Biblical beliefs. We filled out tons of paperwork, were required to take several classes, met with counselors and had our home inspected. We were finally approved in September of 2009. Our profile was then available to be shown to prospective birth families.

April 2010

We were told of an opportunity to adopt a yet to be born little girl available through Bethany Christian Services regional office in Fredericksburg, VA. Holly and I jumped at the opportunity and agreed to have our profile shown to the birth family. We continued to pray that God would open a door for us to be parents.

June 9th
Holly and I decided to pick up Chinese for dinner tonight. We read our fortune cookies which we usually get a kick out of. Mine read "You will succeed in whatever you adopt". Wow! what a fortune to read days before our first meeting.

June 13

We drove to Bethany Christian Services regional office in Fredericksburg, VA where we met with Mary, Sophia's birth mother, for the first time. Mary had reviewed profiles from several families and had narrowed her selections down to three families who she wanted to meet. We felt the meeting went very well but were told that we would receive a call later in the week when Mary selected the family she wanted to parent her baby.

June 14th

Mary picked us!!!! We received a call from our adoption counselor letting us know that we were the family Mary picked. Words cannot express how happy and exited we were! We knew that she was due July 12th....only a month away!

June 27th

We drove to the Bethany Christian Services office in Fredericksburg, VA to meet with Mary and her counselor again to discuss the adoption, openness and hospital plans. This meeting also went very well. We got to learn more about Mary and Mary got to learn more about us.

July 12th

Mary's due date came and went. She was only 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced today.

July 20th

We received a phone call from Mary's adoption counselor who informed us that Mary was going to be admitted to Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, VA at 9 pm. She was to start Cervidil and they planed to start Pitocin later the next morning. This series of medications would start the inducing process. Mary was given the Cervadil which started very minor contractions. We were told to get a good nights sleep and plan on arriving at the hospital on the 21st in the afternoon.

July 21st at 1am

We arrived at our hotel in Fredricksburg, VA. We couldn't wait and didn't want to take a chance of missing the opportunity to welcome our little girl into the world. At 9:30 am we arrived at the hospital and were told that Mary was given the Pitocin at 9am. It was only a matter of time now! After the first dose of Pitocin failed to induce labor the Doctors decided to increase her dosage to speed up delivery. Mary remained in labor the rest of the day.

July 22nd at 1203 hrs.

Sophia Grace blessed us with her presence! We were not in the room during the delivery. However, we saw her very soon after Mary had a brief time alone with our little bundle of joy.

July 23rd

We were released from Mary Washington Hospital at 4pm and checked into our hotel for our stay in Virginia.

July 24th
We met with a local pediatrician who examined Sophia. Sophia weighed in at 7 lbs 8 oz. and was very healthy. We are scheduled back to see her on July 27th for another check up. The rest of the day was spent with Jay's family who came down to see Sophia and spend a little bit of time with us. Mom Mom and Grandfather Burns, Aunt Angela, and Cousins Macy and Adella all had turns holding our bundle of joy and the girls each got to spend some time feeding her too.

July 25th
We all needed to get out of the hotel for a little while. We took Sophia to the local Mall and walked around in the air conditioning for a little while testing out Sophia's new stroller. Sophia gave us a thumbs up on the choice and the quality of the ride.