5 weeks ago

That's right, it's been 5 weeks since the little man was born.  Where has the time gone and where have my updates gone?   I left you all hanging, didn't I?

Well, the truth is, it's a hard story to tell.

Let's do this part in bullets, shall we?

• There was no room at the Inn.   A TON of babies were being born so there was no extra room for us to stay in as adoptive parents.  We spent the first night in B's room.  Because of her C-Section, she could not be left alone with the baby in the room.  So we cared for him as she recovered.
• Baby T was diagnosed with a little hole in the septum between the two ventricles of his heart.  Luckily, he is ok and it may kind of disappear on it's own.  He also had to have his blood tested A LOT because he was at risk for jaundice. 
• On Thursday, we gave B's gift to her.  A locket from Origami Owl that had T's birthstone, her 2 year old's birthstone, an angel wing, and blue baby footprints.  She said she would never take it off.
• On Friday, it was B's birthday.  We gave her a flower and some chapstick she had been wanting. An agency rep brought another birth mom to visit and brought cupcakes.   Our lovely friend Jenn brought her balloons and a cake.  
• On Saturday at 5am, we left the hospital so that B could spend time with Baby T.   Technically, she could sign consent on Saturday night, however, her social worker was not available so the hospital was letting B and T stay until Sunday.        As a prospective adoptive parent, this was HARD.   At this point, T was her baby and not ours, however, we had bonded.  Leaving him was difficult to put it lightly.   
• We went and took a nap and spent Saturday together and with our friends.
• Sunday morning, July 29th- we knew that the social worker was going to the hospital at 9 am.   We were a ball of nerves.      We tried to keep ourselves busy, so we went to Cabelas and walked around.  At around 1pm we started to get very worried since we had not heard anything. 

• At approximately 1:30pm Arizona time, we received a call from the director of the agency saying that B had signed the consent for adoption.  We could head to the hospital to pick up Baby T.

Let me just tell you, this day is the hardest day for a birth mother.  It is also one of the most joyous days for an adoptive family.    We knew that B was saying goodbye as we headed over the hospital, just as we were excited to say Hello.

It took a while.  A long while for things to really happen.  We waited out in the car for the social worker to come and get the car seat.  Then, we waited for them to come back down.  Finally, at about 3pm a nurse and the social worker walked T out to us.

This was the beginning!!!