Bringing Adelia home, Part 1

I'm sitting here in a quiet house with Addie in my arms. Mark and the kids are still sleeping (it's 7:20! Where is my early riser? :)).

So I think I have a few minutes to give you an update.

Thank you so much for your words of encouragement, for your love and your prayers. As I tearfully read through your comments over the past two days, I have been so full of gratitude for the ways God has used this blogging community to minister to me.

Thank you.

Okay, where do I begin? Let's back up to Friday of last week. We had been for a visit to see Addie on Monday of that week, and then on Friday we called for an update. They told us she was 7 lbs, 2 oz, and that they'd taken her off of the NeoSure formula, which she was on to help her gain some weight. They said again that she wasn't ready to come home. They weren't giving any sort of time frame of any sort as to when that may be. All we'd heard was that most babies are at the center for 1-3 months. (We were obviously hoping for the one.)

On Monday Mark had the day off and we were making plans to leave town to go see Addie again. Mom was taking the kids for the day (bless her!) and Mark, our foster baby and myself would be going. My sister was going to meet us at the center and watch our foster baby for us in the waiting room so that we could visit Addie together this time. (Like Rebecca did for us the first time... thank you!)

The phone rang and it was Jennifer, our contact at the center Addie was at. I thought she was calling to confirm our visit for that afternoon.

She said, "Has anyone called you this morning?"
Me: "Uh... not this morning. We got a call from the guardian ad litem last night."
Jennifer: "Oh, good. so I get to be the one to surprise you.
Do you want to come pick up baby today?"
Me: "Are you SERIOUS?"
Jennifer: "Yes. We're ready to release her to you guys today. When can you come down?"
Me, hollering: "Really?!?! I'm so excited!" Then I turned and repeated what she'd said to Mark, who was standing beside me, and the kids, who were in the living room, listening.
(Jen's response to my "I'm so excited" comment was: "I can tell!" Maybe it was the shouting in her ear that gave it away.)

So then we began preparing to pick her up. Car seat? Check. Clothes? Check. Bed? Yikes! Our foster baby was sleeping in the crib. I called our friends and asked them to drop off their bassinet for us for Addie, and we made arrangements to do that. And then we called a bunch of people to tell them the news: "We get to bring Addie home today!"

Our foster baby was at a visit with her birthmom that morning, and when I went in to pick her up, I spoke with the social worker. I mentioned that I knew the 30 days up on Thursday, and so, was she going back with birthmom on Thursday sometime? I went on to say that we'd gotten a call from the center saying that we could go and get our little girl, so we were heading to get her that day. The social worker stood there, quiet, and then said, "No. She's not ready to go back. Birthmom doesn't have a home right now so we can't send her back yet." I was stunned, literally. What? What were we going to do, then? I did not want to ship our foster baby off to yet another foster home. Sheesh. She's only 2 months old, poor baby. And I love this little girl. But.... our agency had told us already that when we got our placement we'd have to find a different place for our foster baby. I made arrangements with the social worker that we would keep her through Thursday, which would give them 3 days to find a new home for her.

And then we drove to pick up Addie.

When we got to the center Jennifer checked out our car seat, took the clothes we'd brought for Addie, and plopped us down to watch a 30-minute video on drug-affected babies. (Great video, but as you can imagine we were sort of anxious to see our baby girl! We'd only seen her two times, ever.)

The previous day, when we'd thought this was just going to be our hour-long visit, we had arranged to meet the guardian ad litem for Addie. (For those of you who don't know the term, a guardian ad litem is a court-appointed guardian whose role is to represent the best interests of the child through the investigation and court process. It is the GAL's job to investigate the facts and take a position in court on legal custody and placement.) So, we had arranged to meet Addie's GAL at the center. She joined us after the video and we began to talk. (And we love her, by the way.)

Then a nurse came in to go over Addie's medical stuff, and FINALLY they brought in a very-cute Addie.

We tucked her in the car seat, said goodbye to everyone, and while Mark carried out our foster baby, I carried out Addie.



And we drove home, stopping twice: once to feed our foster baby, once to feed Addie.



[And now my early-riser is up. As well as the other two. So, I'll leave off there for now but will be back sometime soon for Part 2. And more pictures, I promise.]