Big News & 19 months old :)

For those of you who haven't heard the news....DELANEY IS A BIG SISTER!! Yes, that's right, she already has a sister :)

Kylea was born on January 18, just 11 months after sweet little Delaney Jane! Shew....anyways, we were contacted when she was born, but at the time, the birth mom was planning on raising her. For the past 7 months she has been in the grandparents & aunt's care, with occasional help from the birth mom. In May, the grandparents contacted us and asked if we would be interested in adoption. We of course said, "ABSOLUTELY!!" So, for the past 3 months it has been a back and forth, up and down, rollercoaster ride! We had to wait for the birth mom to have a few court dates and figure out what the rest of the family wanted to do. Meanwhile we just waited and prayed, and prepared a little at a time for the possibility of another little one joining our family. We painted our other bedroom in July(Thanks to my great friend and awesome paint partner, Emily Clawson) and started decorating (Thanks to my best buddy Amanda who seriously needs to design nurseries and coordinate birthday parties:). There were a few moments of uncertainty, but around the beginning of August, it definitely seemed like it was a go on both sides. We felt like it would happen quickly, but we were wrong. Week after week went on and it seemed like the communication wasn't happening. We couldn't get the right people in touch with each other and BOY was it frustrating!! Finally, on August 11, we got together with the grandparents, Aunt, and Kylea and got to meet her and they were able to meet Delaney for the first time! It was a wonderful night and we left there feeling pretty good about the whole situation.

We spent the next few weeks completely finishing the nursery, buying clothes, searching for double strollers and monitors, and praying fervently that Kylea would legally become ours soon. From the legal side of things, this scenario was a little different than Delaney's.

Obviously, we have had Delaney since she was born and we became her legal guardians when she was 3 days old. Birth mom and dad both eventually surrendered their rights. Kylea is a different story. She is almost 8 months old and the birth mom was not on board with us adopting her. However she continues to lose her rights and really doesn't have a lot of hope of ever getting them back(sad, I know :( So we were advised by our lawyer, that the best path would really be for her to willingly surrender and agree to an adoption instead of us going through a big long process of terminating her rights. We understood but were pretty skeptical. However, after speaking to her parents, and our lawyer, we got a phone call last Friday morning, September 6, that she had agreed to the adoption and was signing papers this Friday, Sept 13! We were so amazed! We have spent the last week savoring our last moments as a family of 3, and preparing our home for another amazing little girl.

 Delaney is not entirely sure about having to share her mommy & daddy, but I know eventually they will be best friends! We had another opportunity to visit with her tonight.

Her Aunt brought her by to see the house and let her be around us to familiarize herself with everything. We are hoping she adjusts well and that there isn't a lot of issues. Here are some things we know about her so far...

She was born January 18, 2013 and weighed 5'5. She is now almost 8 months old and weighs over 20 lbs!! She is a CHUNK! Almost as big as Delaney at 19 months!! She is bald as a cueball and sweet as sugar. She has a sweet raspy voice and is SOOOO strong. She loves to jump and is already pulling up and crawling. She may be walking before we know it!

Please pray for us as we sign the papers tomorrow and pray for everyone involved. We still have a few more steps before the adoption is final, but we will gain custody tomorrow, and she will be with us starting Saturday. I will be taking a leave of absence from work until late October to give her some time to adjust and bond with all of us. We know this will be a transition for Delaney too since she's a Mommy's girl, but we have faith that everyone will do great!  We are so excited about this opportunity and are amazed at God's faithfulness and outpouring of blessings upon us!

 As we think back 5 years to the beginning of our infertility journey we never imagined this was God's plan. I know that I couldn't imagine my life with a better man and 2 sweet girls to call my own. We are so blessed!!

**Oh, and just so I don't leave her out, Delaney Jane turned 19 months old this past week and she is a little spit fire ;) She is around 22 lbs and 32 inches.

 She is spouting out complete sentences all of a sudden, and is trying to start potty training. She used the potty a few days ago after telling me she needed to go potty.

Some of her favorite things right now are her "blankie", Elmo, Minnie, & Sofia. She loves her extended family members so much, and talks about them all the time("I see Unc, Nick", Hannah, Nana, Gigi, Pop, Papa, A-Lu, Uncle T) and so on and so on... Even when she goes months without seeing them, she still pretends to talk to them on the phone and recognizes them instantly from a picture.

She knows almost all of her letters and some colors. She sings with the sweetest voice and enjoys Twinkle twinkle and Ring around the rosy. Her favorite movie right now is an Elmo movie...she seriously screams, "ELMOOOO" when he comes on the screen EVERY TIME :) It's pretty precious!

She is really a big girl all of a sudden, but at night I still rock her and hold her like an itty bitty baby. She will always be my first baby girl, and we are so excited about expanding our love to Kylea! I will post pics as soon as she arrives Saturday because I have BIG SISTER & LITTLE SISTER shirts for them to wear :)