Settling in...

Tomorrow will be one week since Isabelle's birth. Happy Birthday :)
It has been an amazing week! Our hearts are warm and our faces are filled with smiles. We are getting into a rhythm and Isabelle is just precious. We are in love and can't get enough of her.

I will be sending out an e-mail with a link to a bunch of pictures Art Faulkner took for us in the hospital.

Our amazing story comes full circle

Isabelle was born at Winter Park Hospital, which is about 1.5 miles from our house. We had originally thought that it would be at the Winne Palmer Hospital in downtown Orlando. Coming to Winter Park Hospital was very emotional for us as this was where we were last June when we lost our son in the 18th week due to an amniotic membrane rupture.

During our stay we were treated by Elaine, who performed the delivery. Elaine is one of the nurse's in the labor and delivery unit. She specializes in high risk deliveries. We were both looking forward to seeing her and as luck would have it, she was on duty today. It is not possible to properly describe our feelings for the care that she showed to us during what was a devastating loss to us both. Even after the procedure, she shared in the experience with us. She was a part of our mourning and set the first wheels in motion for our healing when she referred us to the H.E.A.L (Helping to Endure InfAnt Loss) group.

This morning, one of the nurses brought her into the nursery where we sitting with Isabelle. She immediately recognized us, and after doing some quick math realized that something was not quite right. Here we were not even 6 months down the road holding a new baby. After a few seconds she realized what was going on and her eyes teared up just bit when she recognized that we were adoptive parents. The experience was made all that more special when she told us that she was the nurse assigned to Isabelle's delivery and was one of the first to welcome her into the world.

Elaine told Karen later that we had made her year. She will never know how much she has made our lives. Having watched her work and act so compassionately with us during our loss, there is no more fitting a realization that she ultimately did bring our daughter into the world.

We will never forget our first meeting with her, but we will always treasure this last one.

First Picture - More to come

Isabelle Deanna Smith and Mommy

The baby is ours!!!

Papers are signed...the deal is done! We were with Isabelle Deanna Smith from about 4:30 - 7:00 and then again from 10:15 to 1:00.
She is absolutely beautiful :)...We are in love
We have had a long day and are going to sleep right now. Tomorrow look for lots of pictures and much more details!

Mid-day Update

As of 11:30 AM, the birth father has signed his consent for the adoption. Rebeca was given a painkiller in the middle of the night, requiring an 8 hour minimum wait before she can sign consent. She is anxious to sign and get out of the hospital and wanted our attorney to come early. Nancy is playing it by the book and is scheduled to meet with her at 2:30 PM. If all goes well, we will be in around 3:30 PM with the baby.

Stay tuned...

Latest news

Just got off the phone with our attorney, Nancy. All is moving along according to plan. She believes that the birth father will sign consent first thing tomorrow morning and that Rebeca will most likely sign her consent sometime early tomorrow afternoon. From that point the baby will be in Nancy's custody and we will have immediate access to our little girl.

While Rebeca will be released, the baby will most likely remain in the hospital through Thursday. Nancy will appoint us as official guardians during this time and we will be able to take the baby home upon her release from the hospital. This will be our official status until the adoption is finalized by the courts in 3-4 months.

More to come tomorrow...

Nancy calls with the news

Karen took the call from Nancy with the news that the baby had been born. She provided her with some basic information and timing. Karen calls me to pass on the word. I was having lunch with John Gill downtown. John and I attended UCF together and both served in Student Government 20 plus years ago. I had just gotten finished bringing John up to speed on the adoption process, when the phone rang with the news.

In a later call from Nancy, she explained that the expected plan was for Rebeca to sign adoption consent around noon on Wednesday (12/20). She would then call us so that we could see the baby. The baby would be able to come home with us on Thursday if all went well.

- Ira

The baby is born!!!

I found out at 12:15 this afternoon that Rebecca's baby was born at 11:21 this AM. She is perfectly healthy.

Apparantely Rebecca felt some pains this morning and called the attorney to tell her that she was going to run to the supermarket to get some food for the house. She then called the attorney back at 10Am and said she was having her roomate drop her off at the hospital because she was having pain. The baby was born about an hour later! 6lbs. 1 oz.

Of course it is still not a done deal but after crying for the last hour while I called my immediate family I already feel a connection.
Just waiting for Ira to get home because I pretty much can't function right now!

:)
Karen

No News

I'm not going to send an e-mail out for this post. I just felt like saying that I am officially going crazy. Every time the phone rings my heart skips a beat. Every time I call someone, they think it's 'the call'. Sometimes I think this isn't even going to happen. I just need to keep myself busy.

We had a nice long bike ride today. First time I was able to ride our route since my knee surgery on 9/20! Pretty cool...Tonight, Ira cooked a nice dinner and we shared a great bottle of wine. We'll probably watch a movie and I'll wait for tomorrow.

Of course Ira seems to be handling this much better than me...no surprise there :)

Happy Hanukkah!!!

Adoption Update

We have just received an update from the Adoption Attorney. Rebecca has asked her doctors if they are willing to induce labor prior to the 12/28 due date. The bad news is that they were not inclined to schedule early inducement. The good news is that she is now about 2-3 cm dilated, so things might move along on their own...

Stay tuned to this channel for the latest news on the adoption front and other top stories...

Spoke to the Adoption Attorney

There were some issues last week with Medicaid so the attorney called today to let us know the benefits kicked in and Rebbecca (birthmother) has her card. She has an appointment with the Doctor on Wednesday and is going to ask him to induce her. She is going to try and entice the Doctor with avoiding a delivery during the holidays. Apparently her last child was born during this time and she was able to deliver early.

Nancy (attorney) said Rebbecca sounds good and all indications are that she will proceed with the placement. Nancy explained that when birthmothers do back out they usually do things like not return calls and make unusual demands for money. That is not the case with Rebbecca.

Other news...the birthfather is back in jail. He does not have a driver's license and was out driving and got into a minor accident. They took him directly to jail. (he was not injured) He contacted Rebbecca and asked her to find out from Nancy if he could sign the papers from jail. (He can...Nancy has had to do that before) So that works out well for us.

I'm not sure if I told you all but Rebbecca is hiding this pregnancy from her family. She did that successfully with her last pregnancy also. She had a back injury a few years ago which had her off her feet for quite a few months. She gained a bunch of weight during that time. She does not see her family much but had plans this past weekend. They told her she looked well and asked her if she was loosing weight. I don't really get that but I don't know what it's like to be her!

We expect to hear back from the attorney tomorrow to get an updated due date. Waiting patiently....right!

Cute Kitties in Lawrence, New York

This is from David's backyard