A Look Back

What a whirlwind past 4 days.  As many of you know, we welcomed home our son via domestic adoption on Saturday.  He was born on January 17th at 5:49 a.m., weighing in at 7lbs 13 oz, and was 20 1/4 inches long. He is a healthy boy!

Introducing Joaquin Zavien Weir!

 Big sister Natalie is proud to finally have her little brother home. And so are we! 

We are thankful he is here, and that he is ours, but it didn't come easily.

Many think adoption is an easy choice, a popular or cool option even.  Adoption does not come without a roller coaster of emotions.  And ours was no different. Its very emotionally draining which is arguably worse than physical exhaustion.  The following entails our journey....

Thursday, January 17th

1 am- call from agency saying birth mom is at the hospital; began packing and called friend to come to the house so NJ could continue sleeping

3:30 left the house with Nat sleeping

4:00 stopped in Rockwall for gas and breakfast number 1 (donuts and soda!)

5:50 Arrived in Waco at the hospital (notice the time here....we arrived as our son was born)

6:00 met family member of birth mom in waiting room who told us he was here and healthy

8:45 Met hospital case workers who told us Joaquin's body temp was cold so he was warming up. Could be an hour or two before we could see him

8:50 left hospital to eat breakfast 2 at McDonalds

9:45 Returned to hospital hoping to see Joaquin

10:30ish met with hospital case workers for about 45 minutes on how birth mom and Joaquin were doing and how she was feeling about visiting us; Joaquin’s body temperature was still low so he needed to be warmed up under the warmer for a little longer. (this is killing us at this point as it's already been 4 1/2 hours of waiting)

Noonish decided to check into hotel, shower, and go eat lunch

2:00 Tres Mexican; ordered food and was eating chips and salsa when case worker text asking if we could meet at 2:30 with birth mom. Quickly asked for food to go! *side note: we never got to eat this meal =/

2:45-4:00 Saw Joaquin for the first time as birth mom held him; we each got to hold him for a bit while we visited; case worker was with us

4:00-5:30 Went back to hotel to rest and recoup

6-8 Dinner with a fellow adoptive family from Generations

9:30 Crashed until 8 the next morning; a VERY LONG day of waiting and being in limbo

Day 2

8:00 Woke up and began to dress for the day, waiting to hear when we could go back to the hospital

10:00 Left for a late lunch to Leal’s for breakfast tacos

11:00 Word from case worker said we could visit birth mom at 2pm

Killed 3 hours at the mall

2:00 visited birth mom and Joaquin for about an hour and a half

4:30 went to the movies to try and distract ourselves (received a message from director or agency checking on us and letting us know they were praying for us. How cool is that?)

7:00 Dinner at Double Dave’s pizza

8:15 Face time with my girl! She said, "I want to see my brother."

10:10 Got a message from director of our agency to be praying for birth mom. She was really struggling this last evening with him.

*Another LONG day of waiting and hoping to only see him once.  We were glad the birth mom decided to see him and spend time with him. We just never imagined it would be so much.  Our agency reminded us that they often have to say 'Hello' to the baby before they can ever say 'Goodbye.'

Day 3

7:00  Wake up and began to dress for a very big, emotional day

8:00 Breakfast at the hotel

8:15 Message from agency said we were still on and we were to be there at 9

8:39 Message from agency said birth mom was struggling again and was talking to case worker. We were told not to come until 9:30 now

We sat in our car, cried, prayed, and prayed for peace in her decision whatever it was, and to give us strength to deal with whatever the decision was, good or bad.

9:05 Drove to hospital parking lot to sit and wait for word and to continue to pray (trying to keep our emotions under control; wasn't so easy for me)

9:26 Text message came saying "she signed"

Relief

We entered the waiting room and continued to wait on birth mom and baby to be discharged.  We signed papers with our agency and paid our last big fee.  They took us to the nursery to talk to the doctor and nurse and to sign more papers for discharge. Finally, we got to see our boy!  We immediately changed his clothes, tucked him safely in the car seat and were ready to jet.  One more stop.  Birth mom. Yes, this would be hard. But these are moments we will get to share with Joaquin as he grows to learn his story.
The pain of watching her stroke his face and say goodbye was heart-breaking and very real.  Even as I write these words, tears stream. She loves him. SO much, in fact, that she chose a life for him that she couldn't give.  We told her we love her, and we do. We told her we would be praying for her, and we will.

12:30 Headed home!