Bringing Eli Home

Colby only got 5 days off of work from the hospital to go with us to Tampa, so he had to fly back home on Wednesday without us…yuck! Yet, we were so blessed that GranPatti, Colby’s mom flew in on Tuesday to be with Eli and I and wait further for the paperwork to be processed. We received a phone call late Thursday from our case worker that since Hurricane/Tropical Storm Issac was coming, they were anticipating the courts to be closed and expedited our paperwork! Hallelujah! We were very nervous about the weather, especially with our hotel right on the bay and God worked out those details too! We were able to book flights and fly home on Friday!

Weather radar: Yikes!

We had taken Eli to the pediatrician in Tampa and had to get a letter clearing him to go on the plane since he was under 2 weeks.  Thank goodness for GranPatti and all her help with navigating the luggage, the airport, and Eli the most precious cargo.

First trip to the doctor at 4 days old

  

 

All loaded up and ready to leave to hotel at 5 am!

Taking the tram to the terminal, tired but happy mama!

  

Security testing Eli's bottles and diaper creams.

 

 Posing with airport souveneirs, as we were there during the Rebublican National Convention. No we didn't buy either, ha! 

 

Breakfast in the airport

 Yay! I'm going home!

 Thanks Southwest!

 Sweetest little traveling buddy

 Snuggles with GranPatti

 Landing in Texas!!

He was ready to become a Texan and to see his daddy, who was able to pick us up from the airport since he was on night call that evening. Driving home from the airport, it finally sunk in that we were bringing our son home! Walking through the doors of our house was the most amazing feeling and we were so excited for the rest of the family to come that day to meet him. God is so good!

Together again at last!

 On the car ride home. Had to unbutton your fuzzy legs on your jammies, hot Texas air!

 Home Sweet Home with our Baby Bear!

 First time to be rocked in our rocking chair in your room!

We quickly realized that little “elves” had been at our house since we were away and had a changing station and diapers and necessities all set up. A bassinette, swing, and bouncer seat were all in place for us to take care of our little man. What a blessing the body of Christ is. Friends and family supported us like none other and mailed things our way since we hadn’t had a shower so that we had the essentials to take care of Eli. So blessed.

Meeting your Furry Brothers for the first time!

 First Family Photo

 What IS this thing?

We spent our first night at home without Colby, as he was on night call at the hospital, and then a total of 8 days straight of him working before he got a day off to be at home with us. My mom, Grammy, had switched out with GranPatti and was a huge help during the first few days home, especially since Colby was working. I am so thankful that Colby has a job that he loves but there truly is a LOT of sacrifice when it comes to being at the hospital tons of hours caring for others when you want to be home caring for your family. Fortunately, God blessed us with family medicine clinic rotation the first two weeks of September, so it was so great for him to have a slower clinic schedule and be home more with us.

We got settled into an ok routine at home, but we quickly realized we have a little feisty one on our hands, who’d much rather be awake and looking around or held instead of asleep. But every second of exhaustion and sleeplessness was worth it and is a privilege of having our sweet Eli home with us. 

Eli with his Grammy

Meeting Our Birthmother

On Monday we prepared for our meeting with Eli’s birthmother at the Gladney office there. We got ready, got him dressed, and were super nervous to go and meet her and filled with emotions of both excitement and grief when we thought about the sacrifice of love that she had made for him. When we got there, we said hello but could immediately tell that she needed some time. We handed Eli over to her and stepped out of the room to give her some time with him alone.

When we went back in several minutes later, we were greeted with the sweetest and warmest smile. We spent about 3 hours with her and the case workers and talked about Eli, what we had named him and the reasoning behind it, how her labor went, our families, etc. Colby said I was talking a mile a minute, which is no surprise to many, but I was a nervous Nelly. I have NO idea what we were so afraid of when it came to birthmothers and semi-open adoptions, but all of those were put to rest. I know it won’t always be easy and this is a delicate relationship but will truly be the best for Eli for him to have the opportunity to take that it where he wants later in life.  She clearly showed us and told us about how much she loved him and we knew exactly how much she did by making an adoption plan for him. I think about Pro Choice advocates and my stomach becomes sick as there are so many other families out there desiring a sweet child to fill their homes. And yet, our birthmother chose life and chose for Eli to be raised by someone else, just as Hannah had chosen that for Samuel.

My heart was heavy and greatly sad as we parted ways, as I had only spent 2 days with Eli and could not imagine ever having to make that kind of decision and be without him. But she was so brave and so thoughtful and I pray that God would bless her tenfold for her decision.

 Dressed up in the hotel lobby after our meeting

 With wonderful case worker Megan!

 
* We have beautiful pictures to share of Eli and his birthmother and with us as well that we will forever cherish, however we want to respect her privacy and therefore aren't putting them on a public post.

His Name

During the whirlwind of 2 days, Colby and I had zero time to talk about what to name our baby boy. Friends asked, Auntie Paige was trying to get things monogrammed :) , but we didn’t have a clue! We had talked about a few boy names and a few girl names during the process, but we also weren’t sure what child we were going to get, as we made no gender or race preferences, and wanted the name to be both meaningful and to “fit”.

So, we decided we’d save that conversation for the airport and on the airplane. While on a layover, we literally googled baby boy names and started with the A’s scrolling through. This became rather entertaining as there are some hilarious names out there…bless their hearts!

We started a list on a piece of paper with the names we had previously discussed that we liked, and then listed out options for the middle name in a separate column. We also had discussed that it was important for us to involve our birthmother with making a name decision. We thought it would be quite meaningful for child to have a name from our family and then a name from hers. We didn’t know if that meant leaving the door wide open and allowing her to name him, or picking a few options and then letting her pick.

In the days that lead up to us arriving in Florida, we were updated frequently by our case worker who gave us news on our birthmother and our son’s progress. It ended up that she was going to be discharged at 24 hours and that he would wait until the 48 hour mark on Saturday, so we found out that we wouldn’t be meeting our birthmother until the following Monday after placement had already happened. Well, that was disappointing, as we had to have a name for paperwork signing before even meeting him!

But that’s when God showed us He indeed had another plan and knew exactly what we were supposed to name our son.

I asked Colby, how about Eli? Do you like that? He said he did like it and so we added it to the list. Colby was working on rearranging and writing out possibilities and I sat on the airplane with my mind racing a mile a minute with thinking of all the necessities we needed to pack for the hospital the next day.

Then all of a sudden, I asked Colby for the pen and wrote down our birthmother’s first name and circled Eli in the very center of it. Colby looked at me, and said, “That’s it.” I agreed and immediately asked Colby where Elijah was in the Bible. He had his Bible in his carry-on so he got it out and started flipping through. He then stopped me and told me, “You aren’t looking for Elijah, you are looking for Eli from 1 Samuel.

At that point the tears were flowing (again!) when I quickly realized who Eli was. Colby turned to 1 Samuel and I reached for my carry-on where I had a book that has been very special to me throughout the journey to parenthood and dealing with infertility, called Hannah’s Hope.

Eli is the priest that overheard Hannah, a barren woman, pray in the temple as she threw herself before the Lord in anguish as she asked for a child. Eli thought she was drunk that her prayer was so desperate. He realized her sorrow and said “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant the petition that you have put before Him.” 1 Samuel 1:17

It was after this that Hannah went home and the scripture states that the Lord remembered her. She then gave birth to Samuel, her son, whom she raised until he was weaned at the age of two. She then took Samuel back to the temple and gave Samuel to Eli to be raised by him in service to the Lord.

I opened my book Hannah's Hope by Jennifer Saake and read to Colby a paragraph that I had recently read in my quiet time, where she narrates the scene in 1 Samuel and what Hannah was experiencing. 

“This face did not match his preconceived ideas of the woman who had been prostrate on the temple floor. Eli had expected hardness etched by a life of sin. Instead he was stunned by strange beauty, tainted with raw grief, yet softened by a radiant grace. What could cause these haunting eyes to look so troubled when her face could almost be described as glowing? The priest recalled descriptions of Moses' countenance after meeting with the Lord on Mount Sinai. True worshipers were rare those days, but she surely was one. While questions swirled through his mind, Eli realized he didn't need to give or receive answers nearly as much as he needed to acknowledge her obvious anguish and share with her in committing this pain to the Lord. Her sincere faith demanded the touch of a great God. He prayed the Lord might use him to offer this woman a fresh start. What joy to minister peace to a hurting heart!"

Wow. What a woman of faith Hannah was and what a great God He is that hears our prayers.

We immediately felt the Holy Spirit covering us and the prayers of all of the friends and family that were praying for us. At that point, we looked out the window and saw the lights of Tampa, and landed 10 minutes later. The Lord had spoken to us clearly about His perfect plans for us and our petition had been granted, for we would meet our son Eli the next day. It was at this time that we were no longer worried about our birthmother signing the paperwork or any other glitch in the details, as God had been preparing this blessing just for us long before.

And so we smiled and exited the plane, and were filled with God’s amazing presence and grace as we were to meet our sweet son Eli the next morning. We selected Shane for his middle name, as that is Colby’s middle name, and Colby’s father’s middle name. And now he had a meaningful name from both our family and his birthmother, that there’s no way we could have perfectly picked it ourselves.

Colby waiting to board the plane to Florida, as he's scrolling through names

 Hmmmm......

 The lights of Tampa and the picture I took right after Eli had his name!

"Because I asked the Lord for him." 1 Samuel 1:20

GOTCHA DAY!

We arrived at the airport a little before midnight and God blessed us with all of our bags arriving safely. We carried our empty carseat to the rental car place and found our paperwork with our reservation confirmation. The lady behind the desk  confirmed our reservation and said they had their economy car confirmed for us. She then looked down at the top of the car seat and asked where our baby was. We told her that we were arriving from Texas to come and pick up our son the next morning. She began to tell us that we needed to instead rent an SUV because we’d have too much stuff to fit in the 2 door economy car and the car seat would be a tight squeeze. We kindly declined and told her we needed to stick to our budget car and that we would mostly be at the hotel anyway and not cruising around town.

She then told us that she just couldn’t send us out with that car and upgraded us to the next size vehicle for free! Praise the Lord! So we got a cute little VW jetta instead. We got checked into our Pricelined hotel and were surprised that it was right on Tampa Bay and ended up not being too shabby, as this would be our home away from home with our newborn for up to 10 days while we waiting for interstate paperwork to process and got to bring Eli home. 

Florida!

 The Sunshine State!

 Ok, so maybe we did need a bigger car for all this stuff!

We got our room all set up with the pack and play (which again was hard and confusing…geez!) and got our suitcases unloaded, required paperwork, camera battery charged, and diaper bag loaded with the essentials for the hospital. The next hard part was going to sleep! Colby and I looked at each other, and realized it would be our last night with just the two of us in our little family, and spent some time in prayer thanking God for bringing us to this place and orchestrating the details.

Ground Zero

 

Tadaa! All put together...only missing one thing!

The next morning, we were up bright and early and got things ready to go. We asked the hotel front desk member if she would take our picture. She kinda looked at us weird and then came around the desk and saw the empty carseat. We are going to pick up our baby today we exclaimed! This was followed by the rest of the hotel staff cheering for us in excitement. They kind of became our little family that week and asked to see Eli every time we’d walk in and out of the hotel. 

 On our way to the hospital, it started raining, which Colby and I thought was perfect, as it rained on our wedding day as well. It only made sense for the 2^nd most important day in our life to include rain also! We made our way to the Starbucks in the hospital, where we were supposed to meet the Gladney case workers. We were sad that our case worker couldn’t hop on a plane with us, but Megan and Erica were so sweet and great as they explained all the details to us. Our birthmother had met with them that morning and had signed her paperwork, which was a relief, but moreso another reminder that God had our best in mind. We spent a little over an hour doing paperwork, signing, initialing, reading through requirements, and then….making it official!

 Arriving at the hospital

 

Breakfast and waiting for the caseworkers

 

Signing Paperwork!

 

Blessed!

 Finally….we were going to be able to see and meet our son! We weren’t allowed to see any pictures of him prior to this because of confidentiality reasons, so the anticipation was thick. We got checked into the Transitional Care nursery as official vistors, got our hands washed, and then our case workers talked to the nurses. After this moment, the nurse pointed in the corner over to a bassinette where a little baby was wrapped up and in the corner by himself and said, “He’s over there!”

I guess the rest of the story can be understood by the pictures. Tears, PURE JOY, and an overwhelming sense of pride for this sweet baby boy that God chose to be in our family and made our responsibility to raise and love. Colby scooped him up first and we marveled at him while the case workers snapped photos, which I’m so thankful for. We kissed his fat little cheeks, nuzzled him and let him know that we were here, how much we loved him, and that he would no longer be by himself. Be still my heart. Throughout those first 48 hours that he was on this Earth, I prayed that God would surround him, would give him the best nurses to care for him, and that He would send him our love from afar and know that we were thinking of him and waiting for him to be in our arms.

Seeing his sweet face for the first time

 Hello son!

 Our most amazing blessing

 

Our First Family Photo

 Mama holding you for the first time!

 This is really happening!

 Thank you Lord for this gift.

 

Eli Shane

With our wonderful Florida caseworkers

 We spent several hours at the hospital as we waited for lab work to be completed, were able to feed him and put cute clothes on him, and snapped pictures to send to family as we were finally able to share his sweet face and name with them.

100% O2. Thank you Lord for protecting him!

 Family photos just don't get old

 Can we see your eyes?

 Getting you dressed for the first time

 You were pretty squirmy, and so little!

 Your old man face

 Daddy was a baby hog!

 And then we were discharged, and got to wheel him out in the bassinette and load him up in our rental car to head back to the hotel. We spent a good 10 minutes trying to figure out how in the heck to install the car seat, as we had little time to prepare beforehand, so this was pretty funny as the medical assistant watched us struggling with this. Finally safely strapped in, we pulled away with our little family of THREE!

 This can't be THAT difficult?!?

 All loaded up and ready to leave the hospital!

 

We got back to the hotel, showed him off to the front desk staff, and as we sat down holding our little 6 lb. 3 ½ oz bundle on the hotel bed, we just stared at each other in complete awe and wondered…what do we do now?  It was probably the most surreal feeling in the world, since our birthmother was not at the hospital, and it wasn’t a typical placement where she hands him over to us. Instead it felt like us playing house with a kid they let US take away from the hospital, but we knew instantly that he belonged with us!

We skyped with family, got our 2 hour cycle down pretty well of feeding and changing, and celebrated our Got-cha day by ordering a nice meal from the hotel’s restaurant. We sat out on the pier of our hotel where it was quiet and ate our dinner as Eli snoozed away.

 Back at the hotel for your photo shoot...since the couple hundred we took at the hospital wasn't enough!

 

 Well there are your eyes handsome!

 Big Yawns!

 Getting some Florida Sun!

 Florida was so green and beautiful!

 Great Daddy!

 Token newborn shot :)

 Our hotel was right on Tampa Bay, which was a beautiful place to be "stuck" at for a week

 God's grace was definitely with us!

 Our celebratory Gotcha Day (To-go) Dinner on the Pier outside our hotel

 That's better! Good night sweet one!

We spent the weekend mostly at the hotel, but did take a family drive to see the Tampa Bay stadium and then drove over to the Gulf side and walked on the beach for a bit with Eli in the sling. Do you typically take a 3 day old on the beach, nope, but you also don't typically have to stay in a hotel on the bay with a newborn either. :)

 I have to note and remember that two different people stopped us on the beach asking, “whatcha got in there?”  One person thought it was a dog and the other a bird. Really? Yep lady, I carry a bird around in a sling on my chest…ha!

Morning devotional Bayside

 First "bath." Our sweet baby bear

 All of the newborn clothes we had were huge!

 Baby "B" that we had been praying for was now Baby Eli :)

 We realized after your first "bath" that you had CURLY hair!

 Huge clothes for a wittle bitty boy!

We wish we were able to have brought him home sooner to meet family, but we had to stay in the hotel and in Florida until the interstate paperwork was completed. This really was a sweet time of just the three of us with no other obligations or chores to do around the house, just loving on our little man and we didn’t have to share!