Whirlwind!

One year ago today we were in the middle of a whirlwind! Last year two days ago we had found out that a birth mom had chosen us (after having no wait at all before being presented). The next day we had a conference call with her and after that left for Alabama to hopefully be able to be in the state before the baby (a boy) was born. It was very exciting and scary at the same time. Would she like us once she met us, would she decide to parent, would we be able to spend time with her, would we be bringing this baby home as part of our family? Adoption has so many unknowns and you just have to take a leap and drive halfway across the country and have faith that everything will work out how it is supposed to. And so we did. We made it to AL the next day after driving through the night. We then found out that they had induced her that morning and we waited all day while getting updates from the AL agency on how she was doing. It was a long day and I remember that everytime they called with an update I worried about how the birth mom was doing. It was a long labor but we knew she was being supported by her family and was doing well. The next day, still no baby! By that night he was born via C-section. We were blessed in that our birth mom wanted to put the name we chose for him as his middle name on his birth certificate. And to honor her, we kept his name that way when we finalized. The next day we were amazed to meet this amazing woman who had made an adoption plan for her son and chose us to love and parent him. She was amazing and strong and beautiful. It was very evident how much she loved this little boy, Ji'Robert Tyler. We had an instant connection with her and still havea strong bond and relationship with her. She blessed us to be parents to a son and we will always love her.

Tomorrow is JT's first birthday and although being an exciting milestone its also a somewhat sad event as it reminds us of his birthmom and the extremely hard decision that she made. I know that she has remained sure of her decision to place her baby for adoption but I know it is the hardest decision anyone has to make and our closeness with her hopefully gives her peace that he is thriving and doing well.

And so tomorrow we head northward! JT's big party wont be for another week due to the holiday weekend but we'll celebrate a little bit tomorrow too!

I still have a hard time believing he's already one!