Just Relaxing

Today the three of us just spent the day relaxing in the hotel. It was nice because we really didn't get much sleep last night as Sophia is still adjusting to her sleep schedule :-) We did have a memorable moment today though, Sophia found her belly button! The remainder of her umbilical cord fell off revealing her belly button :-) Its hard to believe she is over a week old already.

The staff here at the hotel are working to extend us in the room as long as possible. However, next Tuesday the hotel was already booked without us in it. So, unless something changes we will have to leave for the night. They do have a room for us from Wednesday through Friday of next week but Tuesday is an issue. We can obviously find another hotel for the night but the current rates in the area are three times what we are currently paying. Making early reservations pays off! We just pray that we can be released to go home before Tuesday or if necessary an opening will become available here in the event that we need to stay. We covet your prayers.

On a good note. Holly's Mom will be able to come down to visit with us tomorrow. She is coming down with Holly's Aunt and two of Holly's nieces. We are exited to see them and show off Sophia. We will have plenty of pictures to add to the family page after their visit. Please pray for their safe travel from upstate New York which should take about 6 hrs barring no traffic delays.

Family Visit

We can hardly believe it Sophia is a week old today! It has been so awesome she is such a great little girl. She slept so well last night I think her nieces wore her out playing with her yesterday. Last night she woke up, fed and went right back to sleep with very little fussing. Mom Mom watched Sophia for a couple of hours yesterday evening giving us a few hours of much needed rest. We spent today with Jay's Mom, Sister, and Nieces at the hotel and having lunch at Panera Bread. We really enjoyed spending time with them and were very sorry to see them leave today. Although now we might actually get to spend a little time with our daughter :-)

Brooke's Visit

We had another wonderful day with Brooke while she was here. She left us about 12 pm to start her long drive home. Within a half hour Jay's Mom, Sister, and Nieces arrived to spend a couple of days with us here at the hotel. We have been so happy that our family has been able to come down and spend some time with us and of course see Sophia. We miss Holly's parents who have been desperately wanting to come and see Sophia but are unable to due to Jim's health. After everything he went through in March he is still not back to full health and is unable to make the long drive down here. They are anxiously awaiting our return to Delaware where they can spend some quality time with us.

Sophia is doing very well. So well in fact that we had to go shopping today and pick up another 23 oz container of Similac! Man can she eat...or drink formula! She is up to 4 oz per feeding. She is loving all of the attention by family who have been all taking their turns with her. She slept so well last night. Our first couple of nights she was wide awake and sleeping most of the day. We did our best to keep her up as much as we could yesterday which I think paid off last night. We are just trying to get her day and night cycles synchronized.

We just got a call today which we were disappointed about. The counselor who was to send out our paperwork on Monday called to tell us that she had just finished our paperwork and was sending it out in the over night mail today. That means Virginia will not get the paperwork until tomorrow. The problem is they should have had it by Tues or at the very latest today. This will mean more time for us here in Virginia as we cannot leave until our paperwork is processed by the state which takes 6-10 days once it is received. Keep us in prayer. Please pray that Virginia processes the paperwork quickly. We like our hotel but are really missing home and all of our family and friends.

Dr. Appointment

Today has been a cool day considering the recent weather we have been having. It has been in the high 90's and on one day reached a high of 102! We had another doctor's appointment today to check out our little girl. She weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz. Already back to her birthweight in 5 days! The Doctor was very impressed with her. We have scheduled another appointment with the doctor next Tuesday if we are still here.

Yesterday Holly's sister Brooke drove down from New York to spend time with us here at the hotel. She and Sophia have been spening some quality time getting to know each other. Brooke is staying here at the hotel and will be leaving tommorow.

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.