The Call

We got the call that BM was going into the early stages of labor on Monday, March 14th around 10:15am. Luckily Glen and I had packed our bags and placed them in the car the night before in hopes that the call might come! We left work and headed to the airport. We had already booked our flights for the following week so we hoped there was room on the next flight out that we could switch ours to. Once we arrived at the airport check-in we were told there were no flights available for the rest of the day. Of course, this was spring break week and everyone was going to Florida! We were devastated but put our names on the next flights stand-by list in hopes that there might just be two empty seats. We went through security, checked-in again and there was one seat that had opened up. Yippee, at least one of us might make it to see our son being born. My mom had arrived at the airport shortly after us and had called the airline earlier and had gotten a seat on that same flight. We had 2 seats now, so mom was going to give her seat to me so Glen & I could both go on the same flight. We went up to the check-in area once more to get the seats switched from her to me. The desk clerk said there was no more seats available so mom would have to fly out the next morning. After a few minutes of typing in his computer as they do, he said, "well, it is your lucky day - another seat has just come available." Mom and I immediately began to cry and the clerk probably thought we were nuts! We were all 3 on the next flight out and hopefully going to make it in time for the birth!!!! The flight which is about 2 hours 45 minutes seemed to take forever but we finally arrived in Florida around 5:30pm. Well, since we had flown stand-by our bags were on another flight that wasn't to arrive until 6:10pm. We decided to get our rental car and wait for the bags. The flight our bags were on was delayed about 20 minutes so we didn't wind up getting our bags until 6:30pm. We had just received a text from the social worker that the BM water had broke and she was getting the epidural. Still waiting for our bags, I am thinking.....we are going to miss it. Finally, our bags arrived except for my moms. They were on a completely different flight and wouldn't arrive until later that night. We worked it out with the airport that they would deliver moms bags to the hotel we were to stay at. Off to the hospital we went! We were greeted at the hospital by the social worker and her daughter. They had spent a good part of the day with BM & BF as they got checked into the hospital. We were taken to BM's room and had all kinds of emotions as we didn't know what to expect at this point. We were delighted to see BM & BF in the room doing fine. We had a great time catching up with them and talking about all the preparations we have made for Samuel's room since our last meeting. Around 10:00pm the nurse checked BM and she had only dialated to 2 so it was still going to be awhile. We left the room while BM & BF went to sleep. Glen, Mom & I would spent the next several hours in the hospital waiting room. Boy did we have an interesting experience! We saw many interesting "cases" of pregnant women/girls pass by as the night went on. The most interesting was a lady that was brought in on a stretcher by the EMT's. I guess she had waited too long and couldn't drive herself. I heard the EMT's say she had a ton of kids already at home. As she was wheeled through into the Labor & Delivery rooms we heard her scream like I have never heard before! She was too late to have an epidural, ouch!! They put her in her room, we heard screaming at the top of her lungs for about 10 minutes and then we heard a baby cry. She delivered a large child and we were glad it was over as was everyone else on that side of the hospital!

Around 2:00am BF came and got Glen and I as BM had progressed to a 10. We thought it was time but soon found we would wait another 2 hours before the arrival of Sam. We sat in the room with BM & BF those 2 hours and had more conversations about life, cars, favorite drinks, jobs, etc. It was a great time to really get to know them a little bit better. I am so thankful for those few hours. The nurse came in to check BM once again and had her do one push. One push was enough so they called for the doctor to come quick! Samuel was coming whether the doctor was there or not! Finally the doctor arrived, got everything set up and BM pushed 2 more times and out came Sam! He was huge! 8 lbs. 11 oz. and crying like he should have. It was such an overwhelming experience to be in the room and we are so grateful to the birthparents for allowing us the opportunity. It was time to cut the umbilical cord and earlier the BF had asked Glen if he would do it. So, Glen cut the umbilical cord as every other father has the opporutunity to do. They then had BM hold baby for a few minutes and then he was passed to us to hold. It was the most amazing moment of our lives. We were finally holding our child that we have waited so long for. He was absolutely perfect. The nurses then took him to clean him up, weigh and measure him. We were so thrilled! And BM made labor look so easy! She didn't even break a sweat and her make-up was all still in place.

We left the room as BM & BF were obviously tired and needed their rest. We followed Sam as he was wheeled into the nursery for the night. The BM had given me a wrist band so that I could go in and feed him as needed. I was lucky to get to be the first one to feed him around 6:00am. Boy was that a nerve wrecking experience. I was in the nursery as mom and Glen watched through the windows. They could tell I had no clue what to do! The nurses in the nursery that night were wonderful and helped me along with every step of the process. Once Sam was full he was swaddled up and went to sleep. We left to go check in to the hotel and get cleaned up. At this point, we had been up over 24 hours with no sleep.

We checked into the hotel, rested for about an hour, showered and went back to the nursery to feed Sam again.

Sam has arrived!!!

Samuel Thomas Stach was born on March 15th, 2011 at 4:04am. He weighed 8 lbs. 11 oz. and is 20" long. He is healthy and very happy! We were released from the hospital on Thursday afternoon and are staying in Florida for another week until all paper work has been signed by the states of Florida and Missouri. We can't wait to bring him home and introduce him to all of our friends & family! He is such a peaceful baby and is sleeping and eating well so far. He had his first doctors appointment yesterday and he has already gained an oz. I hope to post the full update of his birth story in the days to come.

Big Boy

We spoke with BM on our conference call on Monday. It was great to hear her voice and catch up since we hadn't spoken in a few months. She is doing well and ready for labor. She went to Disneyland for her grandmother's birthday this past weekend. She said she was hoping all the walking would have put her into labor but I guess that didn't work! She asked how things are going here and if we have the nursery ready. We had shown her pictures of the nursery as we had it before with Annabelle and then we just recently sent her pictures of the new baby boy nursery we have made it into. She was happy to hear that it was all ready for him.

We received some exciting news from this weeks doctor appointment! Baby boy is estimated to be weighing approximately 7 lbs. 11 oz. at this point. We were glad to hear he was at a healthy weight and doing good. His heart rate is currently 140 bpm. BM was hoping to be induced this coming week but the doctor told her he wouldn't induce until March 25th at the earliest. The doctor did say she was dilated to 2cm and could go into labor at anytime.

We continue to pray for the arrival of baby boy and that he is healthy. We also pray for BM that she has a safe delivery and follows through with her plans of placement.

These past few weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions and we are so happy to finally see an end in sight! We are just waiting for that phone call for now. Bags are packed and ready to go.

Busy couple of weeks for BM

I don't have much new info right now but I thought I would share a few things. BM had a dentist appointment last week as she had been having a toothache. Come to find out she had an abscessed tooth (no fun!) so she went in this week and had to have a root canal to take care of it. It needed to be handled ASAP because if left untreated could have lead to an infection that could have spread to the baby. We just received confirmation that the root canal went fine and everyone is doing good! Wednesday was her regular check-up with the doctor. Everything is still on track for the week of the 14th. On Monday, we have a conference call with BM just to say hi and see how she is doing. We haven't spoken to her since January so it will be nice to catch up on how she is doing. Then Monday after the call she will have another follow up dentist appointment. Monday afternoon she has a scheduled ultrasound to see how baby is doing. Hopefully this might tell us a little bit better when we might expect a call or if they might induce her. That would be the perfect scenario but we all know this is not a perfect world :-) We would love to know when to be there so we could be in the delivery room with her. We've had many prayers answered so far so I am still hoping for that perfect scenario!

Waiting Patiently

The countdown is on! We have about 4 weeks or less before baby boy Stach is due to arrive. These last few weeks are going to make me an even more patient person than I have become in the last several years!

I have packed, re-packed and packed the baby bag again and again! I want to make sure I have all the cutest outfits to bring baby home in. Glen thinks I am crazy (and I probably am!) but I just want to make sure I have everything needed for our 1-2 week trip to Florida. I am worried how we are going to lug all this stuff with us on the plane! Carseat, baby suitcase, our suitcases and a diaper bag will definitely be a handful. Coming home will be even more interesting with a baby in the mix of it. But we are so excited and just can't wait until we get the call.

We plan to let everyone know when we are on our way to Florida. Once the baby is born, we hope to be able to have him with us when it is time to leave the hospital. We ask for your prayers for the birthmother. We pray that she is at peace with her decision and that baby boy arrives healthy.

Trip to Florida

We had been looking forward to our trip to Florida for several months now and it was finally upon us! We spent the night at our friends house who lives by the airport just in case the roads got bad. We sure didn't want to miss our flight for this trip! We left for the airport about 2 hours before the flight was scheduled to leave. As we were driving to the airport, we received a call from the attorney in Florida saying that our BM's 1 year-old baby was sick all night and they were at the emergency room. Then she asked if we still wanted to come. I immediately got that sick feeling in my stomach! I told her we would still be there. We thought worst case scenario, we could at least meet her the next morning if we weren't able to do dinner that night. We just said we would call them when we arrived to FL and see what the update was at that time. Our flight left only 20 minutes behind schedule - we were finally going to meet the BM! About 30 minutes into our flight all the passengers on the plane began to smell smoke. It began to worry us all as you can imagine. Within 2 minutes the pilot was on the intercom letting us know that we would be heading back to Kansas City to see what the problem was, but to remain calm! Remain calm - are you kidding me?! For the 30 minutes it took us to return back to KCI the entire plane was silent (except for the ladies behind us that were saying that if it was their time to go, they were okay with it!!) We landed safely and as we pulled up to the terminal there were tons of firemen, policemen and ambulance waiting for our arrival. That was a little concerning but we got off the plane safely. Come to find out, the fan that circulates the air in the cockpit had malfunctioned which caused the smoke smell. Southwest did an excellent job of getting us on a new plane and we were on our way to Florida within an hour of being returned. Our nerves were shot by this time. We called the social worker to see how the BM and her daughter were doing. Everything seemed to be going fine so we planned to have the scheduled dinner just an hour later than expected.

We arrived to the restaurant a few minutes late expecting everyone to be waiting on us. We walked in and the social worker immediately recognized us and welcomed us with a big hug. The BM & BF were running a little behind and were not there yet. As they walked through the door you could tell we were all quite nervous. The social worker introduced us all and we sat down for our dinner. As odd as it may sound, the entire night felt so natural. We absolutely loved the BM & BF and their daughter. Conversation was very good, they asked us lots of questions as did we. They both had a great sense of humor and were very laid back. Dinner winded up being 2 1/2 hours long as we were caught up in conversation the entire time. I don't think I even ate my food! We shared pictures with them of our family & friends and let them know about our day-to-day lives. It was surprising to find out how much they already knew about us just from reading our profile book. They even remembered Ramsey's name! As we left dinner that night, we took pictures together. The BM mentioned to us that if we are able to make it in time, she would like for us to be in the delivery room with her. We were so excited about this possibility! Getting to sleep that night was actually pretty easy as we were worn out from the days events.

On Wednesday we met the social worker and the BM at the 4D sonogram facility. It was a very exciting moment when we learned the baby was a BOY!!! Seeing the pictures of him, his face, hands, feet and his heart beating was just amazing. We couldn't believe how clear the pictures were of how he looks. The lady doing the sonogram mentioned that it looked like he has lots of hair. The BM agreed because she has had a lot of heartburn with this pregnancy!!

After the sonogram was over, we headed to lunch. The lunch conversation was just as good as the night before. Everything just felt so natural. The BM had lots more questions for us that we were happy to answer. Getting to know the BM & BF was such a wonderful experience. We will now have the opportunity one day in the future to let our little boy know more about his birthparents. The entire trip couldn't have gone any better (except for getting there!). We were so grateful to the birthparents for their time and allowing us to get to know them.

It was time to say our goodbye's and head back home. The BM thought that we would be seeing her before March 14th as she thinks the baby will come much sooner. So, we headed back to the airport with our sonogram pictures in hand. Luckily our flight home went much smoother than the flight going there.

It was a world wind of 2 days. It was such an emotional experience it is going to take us a while to calm down from the trip. In the meantime, I plan to start buying some baby boy clothes and such! Only 8 weeks or less until baby boy arrives!!

Q & A Session

Over the past several months, we have had many questions from family and friends regarding our adoption. So we thought we would take this time to answer some of the most asked questions about our adoption.

-Why did you choose to adopt?
After not being able to conceive naturally over the last several years we had several options to chose from. We chose adoption as it is something I have always wanted to do and we feel like this is where we were being lead. I read a great article that really hit home as well. It stated that you need to decide which is more important: being pregnant or being a parent. So after many months of prayer and consideration, here we are!

-Why would you want to meet the BM?
We want to meet the BM of our child to learn more about where our child came from. The BM chose to place her child for adoption which says that she truly cares about the child. There are other options that she could have chosen and adoption is such a selfless act that we respect her decision greatly. We want to know as much about the BM so that we can eventually tell our child all about where he/she came from. We also want the BM to get to know us so that she feels comfortable with her decision for us to parent the child.

-Will you get to name the baby?
Yes, we will get to name the baby. Once the BM signs consent over to us, we will have a new birth certificate made with the name we choose for the child.

-Is the adoption a "done deal?"
No, the adoption is not done deal. Once the BM delivers the baby, she may not sign a valid consent until 48 hours after the birth of the child or the day that she is discharged from the hospital. The BF may sign the consent any time after the birth of the child. Once the consent is signed it is binding and irrevocable from the moment it is signed unless it can be proven in court that the consent was obtained by fraud or duress. Then it will take another 6 months for the finalization to take place. Each state has different laws on when the consent may be signed. We are following Florida state laws as that will be the birth place of our child.

-What happens if the BM decides to parent the child?
We will stay with the same attorney we are working with in Florida and be matched with another BM. Financially, we will only be out the money that was spent for the BM's living and medical expenses already incurred.

-Are you nervous that the BM might change her mind?
Yes and no. Obviously this would be a devastating loss for us if she does decide to parent the child, but Glen and I both feel that if this child is meant to be our child, it will be our child. We have followed God's path up to this point so we will not stray now.

-When will the baby be able to go home with you?
Once the consent is signed, we will have custody of the child but will need to remain in the state of Florida until all paperwork is filed with the court. This process could take 3-5 days after we have custody of the child. After the paperwork is filed, we are free to leave Florida and head home with our baby!

Hopefully this Q & A session has helped answer some question that you may have been wondering about. If you have any further questions, feel free to post a comment and I will be happy to answer.