Today we officially became full term.  37 weeks.  I'm pretty easy going and a low stress type person.  For the first time I actually felt a wave of genuine nervousness come over me about our pending event!  It's not so much the reality of a newborn in our house that worries me.  It's going through the delivery.  It's been a very interesting 8 months enduring our first pregnancy with 2 kids already occupying much of our time and energy.

Emma was born on a cold snowy Friday just before lunch - January 30th.  Her birth was a scheduled induction so we were able to plan for it.  We had received confirmation that we were to be the adoptive parents just 2 days before that.  We were blessed to be present for her delivery and, in fact, Nicole cut the cord and was the first to hold her.  We spent Saturday and Sunday night at a nearby Holiday Inn Express while we awaited Emma's release from the hospital.  On Sunday, Emma came home with us to our house in Huber Heights.


Elliot was born in the early hours on a Sunday morning - April 23.  After church, Nicole, Emma and I ate lunch at Bob Evan's and then started heading to West Milton for a high school musical dress rehearsal.  While we were getting on interstate 35 my cell phone rang and it was our adoption agency.  She basically explained that there was a boy born last night and he's ours if we want him.  We had been on the waiting list for a second adoption for about a year.  We dropped Emma off in West Milton with grandma and headed to Cincinnati.

On the way to the hospital we stopped at Meijer and picked up a baby name book since we weren't yet prepared for that!  We ended up deciding on the name Elliot the next day.  We spent 3 long days in the back corner of the hospital nursery with Elliot since he didn't have a room.  After those 3 long days we were on our way home with our second child.  So far so good.

Now we await a completely different experience.  We've had 8 months to prepare yet we still have bags to pack, phone numbers to list, 2 names to pick out (a boy's and girl's name) relaxation techniques to remember and probably other things I'm forgetting.  Everyone says it'll all be fine, which I'm sure it will be.

We adopted Emma and Elliot because 7 years ago Nicole and I sat in an office while a fertility specialist told us our chances of natural conception were "basically nill".  God could have allowed us to conceive at any time.  The way I see it, God was pulling the strings all along to get Emma and Elliot into our family.  How special our family is.  And how special this baby will be.  Hand picked.  Divinely planned.

 It won't be long until we're on our way home with baby number 3.  20 days to go.