We had an emotional few days in St. George! On top of the emotions of having someone you love in labor and then someone else you love be born....we also were anxious, excited, nervous, scared, and more happy than we've ever been all at the same time!
On Monday Jan 23rd, we signed the adoption papers to adopt baby Westen. Because he still needed to be on the blue lights, we weren't able to bring him home until Tuesday Jan 24th.
On the morning of the 24th, we had our "placement" ceremony with our birthmom and her family. It was the most crazy mix of emotions. We were so excited that we would be a family, so anxious to get home to share him with our families (who were freaking out!), so grateful for the sacrifice of this amazing family, and so humbled that this all worked out and that our Heavenly Father knew all along what the plan for us would be!
We got him bundled in his car seat and he slept so great on the ride home. I sat in the back seat with him and I couldn't stop lifting his carseat cover up to peek at him. His little chubby cheeks jiggled the whole way home with the vibrations of the car. I tried to take a video with my phone, but my hand and the phone were jiggling too, so I guess it is just something that I will have to remember :)
Lucky for Mel's Aunt Shelley, Westen let us know right before Cedar City that he needed some food and a bum change. So, we got some lunch and headed to Aunt Shelley's house to eat and feed/change/snuggle him. She was so excited to love on him! She gave us some really special things from her hope chest that were mine when I was little and a few things that were my grandparents'.
About an hour before we got home, we started getting text messages and phone calls from our neighbors saying congratulations. We were really confused because we had only told 2 of our friends and our Bishop that we were on our way home with our little guy. No one else even knew we were expecting him to be born. We figured my sweet, yet very chatty, friend Amanda just couldn't stand the secret any longer and told people....but when we got home, we soon saw why everyone was calling us! Unknown to us, my friends Kim and Amanda had been planning to decorate our house for weeks.
Because our friends are rediculously thoughtful, they had Branden's family come over too and they all did! So our friends and Branden's family decorated our front porch as well as our garage. They even decorated inside and there was a huge bouquet of balloons in our living room. When we pulled into the driveway I just lost it. I had been surprisingly in control of my emotions up to that point. But in that very moment, I felt my Heavenly Father's love for me so strong! How amazing is it that he gave us this past year to meet and come to love such wonderful friends. Just to know that someone was thinking of us and was so excited for us to come home meant the world to me. I bawled in the car for about 5 minutes. Branden took Westen inside and came back out and gave me a big hug. I just felt so loved in that moment and so grateful for everyone special in my life!
As soon as we got home, we had visitors! I guess they weren't visitors, they were family! Branden's parents were so glad to see him. Branden, who you must know, is a HUGE germophobe, cleaned the living room, vacuumed, and lysoled everything before Westen could go in the room. He also set up 2 hand sanitizer bottles at the door of our living room and made everyone sanitize before even looking at him :). Branden's parents also brought pizza, drinks and treats out for all of the visitors that we knew would stop by. (Thanks so much for that!)
Mel's mom, Grandma Helen, came out too and loved on him for a bit.
Branden's grandparents (his mom's parents) didn't know that Westen was going to be coming to our family. We wanted to surprise them and it worked perfectly! Branden's mom told them to come to our house for a pizza party and when they saw all of the "It's a Boy" banners, Grandma was so excited!
Our close friends came over too. Kim and Amanda have been such a tremendous support to me through this whole adoption process. They have supported us in so many ways. Even their children would pray for us and for our birthmom in every prayer and they will never know how much that means to us. It was only right that they be there when he came home! (But don't worry, only adults, who were properly sanitized ;) were able to hold hime. Kids could only look.)
Yesterday, the 25th, we took Westen to the InstaCare to get his blood drawn for another Bilirubin check. He looked so cute in his little outfit and his little brown and orange shoes were so stinking cute that I had to have a picture. His bilirubin levels are a little high still, so we have an appointment in a few days to take him to get his levels checked again at a hospital near our house.
He is doing so great! He is sleeping really well (better in the daytime than the night of course ;) . He is eating like crazy and he is so sweet tempered! He is going to have his first bath at home tonight (pictures to come) so he can be squeaky clean for his newborn pictures tomorrow morning.
We love him so much. And our love for our birthmom grows every day when we realize what she has done for us! WE LOVE YOU!
