First of all, I want to thank everyone who has supported us in so many different ways throughout our adoption journey. It wasn't an easy wait, but now that our blessing is here....we understand why God had us wait for so long.
I've waited awhile to post this blog post, because everything we have gone through this past month has been so difficult to put into words. I have felt emotions and feelings I never knew existed. Going back and thinking about the heartache after trying for a year with no success, going through the IUI & IVF treatments, the move to a whole new state to start over, the adoption paperwork, and the nervous anxious wait for "that"phone call. All of it was long and grueling, but I would totally do it all again. Period. Looking back we are embarrassed by what little trust we had in God's plan. I know its easy to say all this after the fact, but if I would do it all again; the most comforting aspect is knowing that God has got you. He had our little man planned for us LONG before Bryan and I even got married. He did not want us to have children of our own because he knew baby boy was meant for us. We had to grow in our faith in God, our faith & love with each other, and in ourselves first.
On January 19th I received another match phone call from one of the birth specialists. She was very informative and gave me a lot of information regarding this opportunity. The one thing about this opportunity was that it was a 6 month old baby, not a newborn as we had thought we dreamed of.
Once we were in contact with the birth family we knew that God had his hand in this situation. Because we had just gone through a disruption our hearts were guarded for sure of all the unknowns, but this time we felt the comfort in our decision to become parents in this way.
On January 23rd we flew to baby boy's home state and settled into the thought of hopefully bringing a baby home. On January 24th, we met our baby boy and his birth family and completely fell in love. The interactions, hugs, & encouraging/positive words were so comfortable and natural that we knew this was just the beginning of an amazing relationship.
We signed papers on January 26th and that is when he was officially in our hands :) Our adoption agency made everything so smooth and seamless that to this day I still cannot believe it all happened the way it did. We had to stay in the state for 2 weeks after papers were signed in order for the states to approve us to take a child across state lines. So we got to explore the place he was born and where the birth family was from! We also got to spend some amazing quality time with the birth family and get to know them and learn more about where baby boy came from. We feel so blessed about this open adoption and are so thankful baby boy with know all about his birth family and be able to have a relationship with them as well!
We not only gained a son, but we gained an extended family. The picture below is a picture of his birth mom's hand and mine with his holding on tightly. This picture just pulls at my heart strings as baby boy with know he has two momma's who both love him so gosh darn much. Love has a whole new meaning now and we are exploring that love and making sure baby boy knows how much he means to us.
I probably won't post another blog post for a bit, but wanted to make sure I shared the good news! If you want to know his name, see pictures etc, let me know your phone number and I can invite you to use an app that privately shares our photos.
Thank you again to everyone for your prayers, encouraging words, hugs, donations, gifts, and continuous support! We are forever grateful!
Sending all our love & Aloha
Bryan, Jen & Baby Boy Guderian
