By His Grace

Once Courtney and Roxanne told me the good news I was excited but still a little cautious. Courtney even understood my cautiousness and said she knew I wouldn't be fully ecstatic/in belief until I had my baby in my arms...which was totally true. I felt with all of the other matches everything seemed to line up perfectly when BAM - they all fell a part or fizzled out.

After chatting with Courtney and Roxanne a bit longer I calmly walked back into the kitchen were Kyle and our neighbors were eating dinner. After sitting down I looked at my husband. I said, "So, there was a baby girl born on August 5th who is named Olivia. Her birthmother has chosen us to be her parents. We will be leaving tonight after dinner." Everyone was so excited and I told them all the little I knew about the situation. We finished eating the delicious meal (I barely touched mine because I was so excited...which if you know me you know I always finish my meal!). Our neighbors were so sweet and said they were going to leave so we could get to packing for our trip. We bagged all of the food up (in the south you always make enough food for a few days or to feed a small army) and I insisted that they take it all. After all, we were hoping to be gone for a while. After our neighbors left and the dishes were clean (thankfully I always clean up while I am cooking so I hardly ever have a big mess to clean up after dinner) we got to packing. I say "packing" very lightly because honestly I was already packed. The diaper bag was already packed and in the car (the diaper bag had been packed since January as well as my suitcase). The stroller and carseat were already in the car. We just had a few odds and ends to pack and then we finally hit the road about two hours after we got "the call". We were on the road by 8pm and had to make a pit stop in the next county over to meet up with my younger sister so she could let us borrow her GPS (mine had finally died after four years) among some other things. She also gave us a bag she packed full of snacks for us which came in handy. Kyle and I drove for about 4.5 hours or so until we reached Valdosta and decided to stop since it was really late/early in the morning. We found a clean and decent motel and slept as well as two people whose dreams were about to come true could sleep. We awoke early the next morning to get some breakfast at C.hick-fil-A and get on the road. The goal was to check into our hotel in Florida with plenty of time to relax and get ready for dinner that evening. We only had about 3 or so hours to drive so it was quite pleasant. After driving around the destination town for a couple of minutes we settled on a clean motel that we felt comfortable enough with.

Fast forward to a few hours later. It was time to head to dinner to meet Roxanne, our birthmother, our birthmother's father and our baby girl! I was really nervous at that point and kept feeling a little bit dizzy and like I was going to faint. What if she did not like us? What if we said the wrong things? What if I ordered a meal for myself that she did not approve of? What if we did not talk enough? All of those questions kept running through my mind but I kept telling myself that we could only be ourselves and we had to remain true to ourselves. Once we were at the restaurant we met up with Roxanne who was already there. We were really glad to see her since we have known her sine January and she knew us pretty well at that point. We went ahead and got a booth to sit in and chatted for a few minutes. Roxanne's cell phone rang and it was our birthmom asking her if she was there yet - she, her dad and the baby named Olivia were in the parking lot. Roxanne went out to meet them and while they were outside Kyle and I were busy praying. We knew God was in control of this meeting and we knew that He knew about this meeting and this baby long before we ever did.

Alrighty, I will write more either tonight or next week! I am very long winded and I am just trying to write a little at a time. Thank you for reading this! Olivia is still napping right now but I need to get some things organized around the house.