oh, right, i have a livejournal account...
right. i have not posted in 1000 years and i suck. i have not read in 950 years, either. work was insane toward the end of the year, and now, well, now i'm a mom. :) it keeps me busier than i ever imagined. i'm exhausted and the baby is stirring toward wanting to eat again, so i'm going to make this quick. with my apologies to vastlymore because i promised i'd do this a week ago so she could stop keeping it secret. :) if you want a long, emotive version, it wrote it up here. if you want the quick and dirty, this is it:
on Friday, dec 10, our social worker called us and asked if we'd like to be presented again. this time, unlike on any of the previous calls, she said that she thought this would be ideal for us and that our odds were really great. the situation she was calling about was an african american baby girl born that very morning. she was 6 lbs. 8 oz. and 19.29 in long, well and healthy with an uncomplicated delivery.
half a day later, saturday the 11th, we got another call to let us know we'd been chosen. the baby was discharged from the hopsital into foster care, to a wonderful foster mom named jeanette.
a day later, sunday the 12th, we got photos (we squee'd!) of the baby at discharge from the hospital and notice that the birthmother, andrea, had signed her waiver that morning. the birthfather still could not be found, and it was beginning to look as if he'd have his rights terminated by the lawyer publishing an ad in the paper and waiting for him to not respond.
the next day, monday the 13th, we got to meet our daughter for the first time. jeanette brought her up to the agency and we sat with her for an hour, holding her, feeding her, burping her, and totally falling helmet over motorcycle boots in love. after we met her, we were able to give her a name: Zoe.
the next day, tuesday the 14th, we did finally get to meet andrea in what's called a "match meeting". the match had already been made and she'd already signed the termination, but i suppose she could've left the meeting and told her case worker that she hated us and wanted anyone else on the planet besides us. but she didn't. we tried to make her laugh and feel comfortable, but she was very quiet and only answered direct questions with short direct answers. open-ended questions got nowhere and she didn't volunteer much. at the end of the match meeting, we had another visit with our daughter with andrea there, which wasn't as hard as i expected. she just wanted to hold her one more time and say goodbye. she even placed Zoe in rose's arms at the end of the visit, it was very sweet, and i admire her strength tremendously. we had to leave her with jeanette one more time, and that was hard as hell. the lawyer had to give the sign-off to all the attempts that had been made to find the birth father. if the lawyer said it was all diligent enough, then the ad could be placed in a legal journal somewhere and zoe could come home with us.
that darn lawyer had the nerve to be in court all day. like he had a full-time gig, or something.
still, an agonizing 4 hours later, we got word that he had pronounced the search proceedings suitably diligent and thus thought it safe to let us take zoe home.
the next day at 10, we went to our agency one more time... jeanette brought our daughter to us, and we took pictures with all the people who had helped make it happen. and then we went home. the three of us.
my life is pretty much on its head. this is only the third time i've sat at my computer in the almost two weeks we've had her. and now, because i know you're all slavering for them, pictures.
This was our first image of her, the day she was discharged from the hospital. It was hard not to pitch my heart over the electronic wall to her on the spot.
With giant Amazon hands for scale, that's her with me the first time we met. She is tee-nine-cy.
fluffymotor and zoe, the day they met.
me again, with zoe on the day of our match meeting. in the background, you can see the antique baby scale and some of the photos of children our agency has placed over the years. they've been doing this since 1918.
the whole fam-damily, enjoying a cuddle after zoe's first bath.
she is trying very hard to suck her thumb here. she managed it a couple of times at the beginning of this week, but when this was taken last week, she still couldn't get her eyes to track together, so finding her hand and her mouth at the same time was just too advanced.
on Friday, dec 10, our social worker called us and asked if we'd like to be presented again. this time, unlike on any of the previous calls, she said that she thought this would be ideal for us and that our odds were really great. the situation she was calling about was an african american baby girl born that very morning. she was 6 lbs. 8 oz. and 19.29 in long, well and healthy with an uncomplicated delivery.
half a day later, saturday the 11th, we got another call to let us know we'd been chosen. the baby was discharged from the hopsital into foster care, to a wonderful foster mom named jeanette.
a day later, sunday the 12th, we got photos (we squee'd!) of the baby at discharge from the hospital and notice that the birthmother, andrea, had signed her waiver that morning. the birthfather still could not be found, and it was beginning to look as if he'd have his rights terminated by the lawyer publishing an ad in the paper and waiting for him to not respond.
the next day, monday the 13th, we got to meet our daughter for the first time. jeanette brought her up to the agency and we sat with her for an hour, holding her, feeding her, burping her, and totally falling helmet over motorcycle boots in love. after we met her, we were able to give her a name: Zoe.
the next day, tuesday the 14th, we did finally get to meet andrea in what's called a "match meeting". the match had already been made and she'd already signed the termination, but i suppose she could've left the meeting and told her case worker that she hated us and wanted anyone else on the planet besides us. but she didn't. we tried to make her laugh and feel comfortable, but she was very quiet and only answered direct questions with short direct answers. open-ended questions got nowhere and she didn't volunteer much. at the end of the match meeting, we had another visit with our daughter with andrea there, which wasn't as hard as i expected. she just wanted to hold her one more time and say goodbye. she even placed Zoe in rose's arms at the end of the visit, it was very sweet, and i admire her strength tremendously. we had to leave her with jeanette one more time, and that was hard as hell. the lawyer had to give the sign-off to all the attempts that had been made to find the birth father. if the lawyer said it was all diligent enough, then the ad could be placed in a legal journal somewhere and zoe could come home with us.
that darn lawyer had the nerve to be in court all day. like he had a full-time gig, or something.
still, an agonizing 4 hours later, we got word that he had pronounced the search proceedings suitably diligent and thus thought it safe to let us take zoe home.
the next day at 10, we went to our agency one more time... jeanette brought our daughter to us, and we took pictures with all the people who had helped make it happen. and then we went home. the three of us.
my life is pretty much on its head. this is only the third time i've sat at my computer in the almost two weeks we've had her. and now, because i know you're all slavering for them, pictures.
This was our first image of her, the day she was discharged from the hospital. It was hard not to pitch my heart over the electronic wall to her on the spot.
With giant Amazon hands for scale, that's her with me the first time we met. She is tee-nine-cy.
fluffymotor and zoe, the day they met.
me again, with zoe on the day of our match meeting. in the background, you can see the antique baby scale and some of the photos of children our agency has placed over the years. they've been doing this since 1918.
the whole fam-damily, enjoying a cuddle after zoe's first bath.
she is trying very hard to suck her thumb here. she managed it a couple of times at the beginning of this week, but when this was taken last week, she still couldn't get her eyes to track together, so finding her hand and her mouth at the same time was just too advanced.