28 Hours Later

How does one even put a title on a post like this?

Yesterday morning Stephen and I agreed to begin taking down the nursery. We had given up our journey to parenthood after 4 years of trying and decided that we had had enough clinging to that dream for now. The nursery was just a painful reminder of the TWO failed matches we had. Our plans were to catalog what we had and offer it to family and friends for a donation to go into a savings fund for when we revisited the option to adopt in a few years. About two hours after sending out the offer email to family, I got the phone call that changed our lives forever.

When I see our adoption agency's area code flash over the caller ID, my insides sink. I associate that area code with terrible, devestating news. I actually ignored the first call. The agency called right back. Turns out Stephen was already on the conference call line. After our last failed match, we told the agency we no longer wanted to be shown to BMs. Our caseworker began telling us about a BM, to which I tuned her out. She knows we don't want to be shown! She shared a lot of information that my brain and ears completely silenced to, before she said, "And the great news is, the healthy baby girl was born on 2/14 and we need to know when you can come pick her up." SILENCE. I then stammered out something untelligible before feeling like I was going to cry/vomit. Are you serious? We said we'd be there tomorrow. Last night was a mad scramble to get ready. Thankfully we both got a full night of sleep.

We woke up early this morning and headed to pick up baby girl. On the way there we were trying to think of a good name. We both agreed that we loved Evelyn for a first name. We call her Evie, for short. We were kind of at a loss about middle names. I really wanted to honor both Emily and Stephanie, so I was looking for something that combined Kay and Gene. I was looking through the K section and stumbled across Kayen. (pronounced Kay Inn) KAY and gENe. To top it off, the name Kayen means long awaited daughter. PERFECT!

We drove through some gnarly weather today, but we finally made it to the agency. We signed a butt load of paperwork before being taken into the placement room. We waited in there for about 15 minutes, during which Stephen nearly vomited, before there was a knock at the door.

In walked the most beautiful baby girl I have ever seen. She was wearing a blue and white outfit with a blue bow headband in her hair. The woman carrying her in placed her in my arms and I couldn't stop staring and smiling at her. COMPLETELY SURREAL. I finally handed her off to Stephen who totally LOST IT. The man was a bubbling mess. I joked that Evie was going to learn to swim right then in all those tears.

Mom came with us so she was able to catch the first time we met her in pictures and video. We will be sure to share. After visiting with baby girl, we got her all packed up and are now on the way home. Did I mention that this has all happened in the last 28 hours?! BANANAS.

Someone pinch me.