Sunday, June 28, 2015

She's here!

I have been thinking of how to put the last few weeks into words, and I am just overwhelmed with God's love and provision. So here is my attempt to explain.
We met our second child's birth mom in March and were fortunate to be chosen by her. We had 3 months to get to know her and her family before the baby was due on June 10.  We met for dinner, did play dates with her nephew and family with Jeremiah, and truly enjoyed spending time together and getting to know one another. After such a heartache in October, we stayed cautiously optimistic. Eventually we realized that we couldn't let the last attempt take the joy out of this one. It is a very emotional journey on both sides, as you can imagine, and we held on for the ride.
The amazing birth mom's name is Brianna and many were able to meet and see her when her family attended our fundraiser in May. She stood up on stage with her family and Stephanie's family to show how open adoption has grown our family exponentially and the power of their decisions.
I also had the privilege to go to an ultrasound. So cool!
Brianna asked to be a part of naming the baby. When we gave her our list, she took the names into consideration but nothing really stood out. So we prayed and asked God to give us names with meanings that would belong to our daughter. We sent some more suggestions, and Brianna chose Eliana Jane for her name. Eliana means God has answered, and as beautiful as that was then, we had no idea that that meaning was going to be even more amazing in His time.
Eliana was due June 10, as I mentioned before. So we cleared our schedules and got ready... Brianna's wish for Ellie was to have breast milk exclusively and she would provide milk for her as long as she could. Isn't she awesome?!? I was set up by a good friend to get donor milk (another amazing donation I never knew existed!) and we had a deep freezer full all ready for the big day.
June 10, no baby.
June 11, no baby ... I will spare you the rest - June 17, back to dr and no baby. June 18 Brii went in for a procedure to get things going, still nothing.  Needless to say we were getting anxious and wondering when she was gonna make her entrance! Everyone we talked to said they couldn't believe they were waiting for 2 weeks to induce. This was so hard for us, because our hands were tied! But we waited.
Monday morning at 1 am I got a text from her sister that she was in labor. We waited for more news and heard that Eliana Jane was born at 7:18am on June 22 weighing 6 lbs 7 oz. (and I thought my newborn clothes wouldn't fit when she was so overdue!!) Brii and her family took Monday with Eliana and we were able to go see her on Tuesday. We had a great visit and returned Wednesday to take her home.
Now I can tell you why God made us all wait so long ...
Our adoption journey truly began the summer of 2009 when David had his colectomy. If you haven't heard that story I'd love to tell you all about my miracle of a husband. But after sepsis, pulmonary emboli, 6 day coma and 2 month rehab, David wasn't able to father children anymore. David was not even expected to live through that. But 3 years later we were blessed with Jeremiah, who is named after Jeremiah 29:11 and started seeing God's plan for our family.

June 22, 2009, David's surgery. 6 years later ... June 22, 2015 Eliana Jane is born. God has completed our family and  "God has answered". I don't think anyone could have planned it better.
Thanks God. ~ Leah