Words cannot even begin to describe our joy in becoming parents to our precious boy! I'm struggling to even start this post because nothing that I type is enough! God has blessed us beyond words! So, I'll start with this...
Jesse and I went to visit our family and friends in Oregon in the beginning of June. I stayed a little longer than Jesse and I returned at 10 pm on June 28th. The very next day Jesse and I were both taking a nap around 3:30 in the afternoon. I was tired from traveling and Jesse had gotten off work early (which keep in mind, this never happens... It was a God thing that Jesse was even home!). We woke up to THE CALL! Our case worker called to tell us that our baby boy was on his way and that we needed to get on the road to the hospital. We jumped off the couch and ran around the house like two chickens with their heads cut off. Liam wasn't due for another 3 and 1/2 weeks! We didn't have anything ready. We were in the middle of a house project, didn't have a bag ready, and the nursery was FILLED with tools and random crap! I was planning on returning from vacation and finishing my to-do list. BUT, Mr. Liam was ready to be born. As we scrambled to get our bags packed, I was on the phone with my sister. Thank God for her because she literally had to tell me what to do step-by-step! She said, "Lauren, put pajamas in your bag. Put your tooth brush in your bag"... We were out the door within 10 minutes and even remembered to grab our camera!
We started out on the drive which was about 2 and 1/2 hours away. Surprisingly, the drive went pretty quickly and we didn't even get pulled over for speeding! Our case worker called when we were about an hour away to tell us that Liam was born! We couldn't believe how fast he came! When we finally got to our exit we accidentally turned the wrong way. I was already about to throw up and that nearly took me over the edge. I was so excited, nervous, anxious, and shocked I could hardly see straight. Luckily Jesse was able to think quicker than I could and he found a fast, slightly... ok, totally illegal place to turn around. As we walked into the hospital we tried to take some deep breaths and not pee our pants!
If you've ever visited a maternity ward you know that you have to be buzzed in the door. We hit the call button and the nurse's voice came through the speaker asking who we were there to see. I froze... "Uh, we're um,,, we're here to see....well, I think our agency called to tell you we're coming", I mumbled. The nurse kindly said, "Oh yes, come on in!" I was already sweating and feeling like an emotional basket case at this point. Our case worker texted us to tell us that Liam's birthmom, who I'll refer to as "A", was ready for us to come into the room.
Jesse and I walked into the hospital room to meet our son. A was holding him and she smiled as soon as she saw us. She is amazing! (I'll tell the amazing story of meeting her in another post.) She handed him to me right away. I still can't describe how I felt when he was in my arms. I couldn't believe it was happening. A's mother was with her, which was great. We were thankful that she had support. Jesse and I took turns holding him as we talked with A about the delivery. We were blessed that she chose to share all the details of Liam's birth with us. Here are our very first pictures together.
Liam was born at 5:51pm and we were holding him by 7:30pm. We stayed in the room with Liam, A and her mother for about an hour. We wanted to be sensitive to A and give her some time with Liam, too. We got some things out of our car and stopped at the nurses' station. They were so amazing and very gracious to our situation. It was a small hospital and they had never had an adoption take place there before. They ended up having an empty room on the floor and they allowed us to stay there for the entire time! We were planning on having to stay at a hotel near by and visit during the day which would have been so sad because we would have missed out on so much time with Liam.
Liam was back in our arms in our own room by around 10pm. It was so fun to hold him with just us in the room. It was such a special time. From that point on, he was with us the entire time we were in the hospital.
Our first photo as a family of 3
Since Liam was born early, we stayed in the hospital for 5 days. We still didn't have a carseat or clothes for him. It was too hard for me emotionally to buy things prior to Liam being born. Thankfully there was a target very close to the hospital so we were able to go and buy the carseat, baby clothes, some food to keep in the room, and some more clothes since we didn't pack very efficiently. The hospital even had a washer and dryer for families to use so we did a load every day, it was great! Most days we ate oatmeal for breakfast and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. Then we would treat ourselves to dinner from either the hospital cafeteria or a local restaurant that delivered to the hospital. The nurses knew all the best places to order from. Here's a picture of one of our dinners at our "dinner table".
We started going a little crazy after being inside our tiny room for so many days in a row so we took "field trips" to the other end of the hallway! Haha
We came home on the 4th of July-it was so fun! Liam did great on the way home! This is us leaving the hospital.
His first car ride
The drive home was filled with anticipation because we knew my family was at our house waiting for us and we couldn't wait to introduce Liam to his family!
Remember when I said we left our house with tools in the nursery and projects unfinished? Well, we have amazing family and friends who spent hours getting everything ready for our return! They did everything from drywall, decorating, cleaning to yard work! It was such a blessing to come home to everything perfect for our sweet boy!
Thank you to all of you who have read our story, prayed for us, encouraged us, helped with adoption costs, sent gifts, and loved on our baby Liam! xoxo
