1 month

This will be a short post because I wanted to be asleep an hour ago, and yes, I need it! We are exhuasted over here but no surprises there! It has been one month since this sweet little boy came into this world!

 

You gotta have one of these pics....

 

and not to be outdone.....

 

always the little mommy!

Newborn Pics

This post will be filled with pictures because, let's face it, that's all you guys really care about!  My sweet friend, Kimberly, with Eden Grace Photography captures these beautiful moments with my family. Thank you!

 

 

 

 

 

not done yet!

 

 

Aren't these just perfect! now I have to decide which ones to use and where. My oh my!

 

 

 

Puzzle, Post Placement & Infertility

I don't think I mentioned in my previous posts how much we raised with the puzzle so here it is!

 

 $6,750!

 

That's incredible!  That is nearly half of our total cost! We paid just under $10,000 up until placement of our Lil Man. Now we have 5 post placement visits from the agency in 6 months.  Each one of these has a small fee (about $60 each time) involved for mileage to come to our house.  Many of you may be asking why this has to happen since we were already approved to adopt.  The state of Texas does not finalize an adoption until 6 months has passed.  That means we do not have a birth certificate, social security number or anything of his that has our last name on it.  Right now he still carries his birth mother's last name.  At 6 months we will receive a court date to finalize the adoption. This is a fun court date though so no worries! It's a formality really.  Once we have those papers we get everything changed to Joaquin Zavien WEIR!

Can he be taken from us before the 6 months? Not from the birth mother, but if the agency were to see us or our environment as unfit, it's possible. That's why they have the visits.  No worries there=)

 

Here's a flashback to NJ's day in court!

 

slept through the whole thing=)

 

On to other things.....

 

Infertility..a word that stings like a bee to many women, but it's been on my mind a lot.

 

Recently, it seems that many women close to me have been or are going through this struggle of infertility and ALL that comes with it.  At this point in my life, I can honestly say that I am thankful for my infertility. Notice I said 'at THIS point in my life.'  This was not always the case. The 2 1/2 years leading up to Natalie being placed in my arms were not easy years. But the Lord saw us through.  Month after month of negative pregnancy tests were heartbreaking. But the Lord saw us through.  The 80 + friends that became pregnant during those years with their first, second, third, and fourth children were gut-wrenching at times. But the Lord saw us through.  The roller coaster of emotions involved with the IUI decisions, then the adoption decisions were difficult. But the Lord saw us through.  During this time of my life I became closer to the Lord than I have ever before.  It was the first time I completely let go of MY plans and gave them over to Him. And WOW has He blessed me with two beauties!  My point is I would not have made it through this journey without my relationship with the Lord. Now I'm not talking about  going to church and praying like so many 'Christians' flippantly discuss. I mean a relationship with the Lord. He alone brought me through a time of despair.  If you do not know the Lord like I speak of, please contact me as I would love to share.

Do I wonder what it would have been like to carry a child? Sure.

Do I imagine what mine and Brian's children would look like? Sure.

That's normal. That's expected. But it is not a yearning for me anymore. I simply wanted to be a mom.  And thanks to two beautiful, brave birth moms, I am.

 

I share my heart for two reasons.

1. I am an open book and love to share my story with others if it helps. I feel like God brought me through this for a reason, and I want my testimony to bless others.

2. I obviously have a heart for adoption and want to open people up to this possibility in their own family!  HOWEVER, I do feel like adoption is a calling and it is NOT for everyone so I never want to push it on anyone.

 

 

 

 



Mother of 2

It is Thursday which means I have survived my first 4 days with 2 kiddos all by myself! It has definitely been logistically challenging of course but overall not too bad. I just have to rethink everything to accommodate holding a 2 year old's hand with a carseat in the other.  We made it to the dentist on Monday, and both of them did great! Natalie was so brave and didn't cry. The staff was amazing, making it overall a great experience for her.  Tuesday and Wednesday were home alone days with the exception of a wonderful evening with precious friends!

They surprised me with this amazing cake!

And these wonderful gifts.....check out that Razorback stuff!

I feel so blessed to call these ladies (and so many more) friends. Thank you for making Joaquin and I feel special. 

Thursday was spent at the doctor for both kids. A regular check-up for Joaquin, and a strep swap for Natalie(negative, thank goodness).  Joaquin's 2 week stats are as follows:

head: 13 3/4, 25th percentile

height: 21 inches, 90th percentile * this may be the one time in his little life he will be tall=)

weight: 8.25, 75th percentile

After an hour and a half at the doctor getting them both checked out, we dropped off Nat's prescription for her breathing treatments, drove to Chi-fil-A to eat and kill time, then back to the pharmacy where I had to get out to go get it, and finally back home. A busy morning but NJ and JZ did great! They were good to me.

Here are some sweet snapshots of our moments this week. I love how much Natalie loves her brother. When she hasnt seen him for a few minutes her question is always, "Where's my brother?"

Our lazy (so thankful to have) mornings,

ready for naptime,

 and his favorite sleeping position. It took us about 5 days to discover his hatred for being swaddled, so the arms are out buddy!

**We have also been SO blessed this week and next with meals 3 days a week from our Sunday School class. This is such a blessing to not have to think about for a few days each week.  Thank you!

The Puzzle revealed

Words cannot express the gratitude we feel to each and every one of you that contributed to our adoption fundraiser. This was truly a blessing beyond measure.  We are in awe of your selfless giving and we feel so loved.  So here it is!

I am working to get it framed where we can see both sides.  Then it will proudly hang over Joaquin's crib! I can't wait to display it for all to see how much this baby is loved.   Thanks again to my friend, Maria, for snapping these photos so we could make this happen. Hop on over to Holland Creations Photography to check out more of her work.

What's in a Name?

Sometimes nothing...... like Natalie Jade. This was simply a name that wasn't extrememly common that we loved. Jade came from a character's name in a book I was reading. We put the two together and loved it! This sweet little boy's name was a little different.

 

When we found out we were chosen by a birthmom carrying a little boy that was full Hispanic, we immediately Googled Hispanic names and began reading through a long list of boy names. Out of a very long list, 3 stood out the most that we both agreed on: Joaquin, Diego, & Cruz.  The more we tossed them around, the more we liked Joaquin. *Now for a funny side story regarding this name.  Several years ago my goofy dad told the family that he decided to change his name, and that we would have to start calling him by this name. Joaquin he said!  We asked him where in the world this came from and I think he mentioned something about it being a power name.  We laughed, but he held on to it for awhile=)  So, when Brian and I decided on using that name I knew my dad would be excited; we'd be naming him after my dad.....ha!

On to the middle name.  Since we only agreed on 2 other names we had to choose from these!  Brian has a friend with a little boy named Diego, so we moved away from that and towards Cruz. We liked the way it sounded and thought the initials JC would be cute with NJ!  Wait a minute you say. His middle name is not Cruz, right?!  RIGHT!  A couple of weeks after meeting our birth mom and learning more about her, Brian and I talked and decided we would like to offer her the opportunity to give him his middle name.  We felt this would be special for him one day, not knowing how much communication we would have with his birth mom after placement.  She was excited about the idea.  We did not learn of his middle name until the day he was born=) Kind of suspenseful and fun!  She was deciding between two names, one of which her mom was trying to convince her to use because it was a family name. She went with her own choice, Zavien. Where did she get it? She just came up with it because she wanted it to be unique! We LOVED it! Now we have NJ and JZ!

Proud Big Sister!

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!