The Call That Changed Our Lives Forever

On March 5, Scott and I celebrated 7 years of marriage.  It was a Monday and we had plans to go out to eat and spend the evening together.  My work day was coming to a close when I heard my cell phone vibrate and my heart jumped out of my chest when I saw our agency area code.  My hands were shaking as I answered the call.  The words we have been waiting to hear were spoken, "You all have been matched with a birthmom, and oh, she is 39 weeks pregnant."  Our case worker gave me as many details as she knew at the time and then she asked if I had any questions; I very quietly asked if she knew the sex of the baby.  I could hear her smiles as she said, " Jessie, it's a girl."  I had held it together until those 4 words; and I won't lie, tears started streaming down my face.  I wrote down information and directions and the next few steps we would need to take very quickly in the process.  I hung up and stared at my phone for a moment before calling Scott.  My hand was shaking so badly I could hardly hit the one button necessary to speed dial.  I am not even certain of my words, but I know I got the point across as I do remember him saying; "Jessie we are going to have a daughter."
Things began happening very quickly.  We called the attorney, mapped our route to the hospital, installed the car seat base and packed and repacked the diaper bag and our overnight bag and waited for the call.  Our birthmom did not want to meet us until the hospital, so we were trying to think of what questions to ask her and started praying for her with every breath we took.  We knew everyone seemed healthy and that this seemed to be a great adoption plan according to our agency.
A lot happened during that week of waiting, but we can look back and see God's plan in orchestrating everything according to his plan, and not our own.  We are so grateful for that!
Friday morning 3/16, I received a text from our case worker at the agency and it was a picture that said, "she's here!"  It took me about 2 seconds to call her and I just heard a bunch of giggles as she said they were waiting to see how many seconds it took for us to call.
We were told our daughter was born late on March 15 a healthy 8 lbs 20 3/4 inches and our birthmom had asked us not to come to the hospital until Saturday morning which is how long she had to wait in order to sign the adoption papers.  As hard as it was to stay away knowing that our daughter was here, I could not help but understand that her birthmom needed that time to spend with her.
Friday was a very long day.  We stayed busy by finally going to update our phones so we could take good pictures and video.  We met a friend for lunch and tried to stay distracted by making the various phone calls to family.
We left the house at 6 a.m. Saturday morning for the 2.5 hour drive to the hospital.  We met our case worker at the front entrance and she prepped us for our first meeting.
Stepping out of the elevator and onto the third floor knowing we were about to meet our child was almost too much, but I was not going to cry (not yet, anyway.)  We waited down the hall so our case worker could see if she was ready for us.  A few minutes later we walked into the room.  There they were...a beautiful woman cradling a tiny little baby.  My heart has never felt so much love as at that moment; holding Scott's hand, getting the first glimpse of our child and the incredible woman who was making it all possible.
She looked at me and Scott and we went to sit in seats by her.  They were both beautiful!  I remember getting out the words, "It is so good to meet you."  She extended her arms and I asked if she was sure and then the most perfect little girl was in my arms.  I teared up, but knew we needed to talk to our birthmom and answer any questions she may have so I was desperately trying to hold it together.
We are so thankful that our case worker was there with us!  She kept the conversation flowing and it seemed very relaxed.  Before we knew it, our attorney was walking through the doors and we needed to step out.  I handed our precious baby back to her birthmom and we walked out to wait, knowing that she was about to sign the papers to give us her baby.  There are no words to describe what I was feeling at that moment.
It was only about 20 minutes later that our case worker came out and said everything was going as planned and that our birthmom really liked us and felt very confident with her decision in choosing us.
A few more minutes and we were signing papers with our attorney!  It all happened so fast and we now had a  daughter!  Our birthmom did ask us if she could have the rest of the day to spend with our baby (ours meaning hers, mine and Scott's) and that she would like us to come back at 7 p.m. to spend a few more hours with her before her discharge.  She wanted to hand our baby to me as she left.  She would be discharged first and then we would be discharged sometime around midnight.  Leaving then was the second hardest thing we did that day.
We went and bought flowers for our birthmom having discussed that she loved hot pink earlier, so we bought a cute little arrangement of hot pink roses in a pretty little vase and took them to the nurses station for them to give to her.  I cried a little in the flower shop as I wrote a note to her; how on earth could I express what was in our hearts at that moment.  I did the best I could in 2 short sentences on that little flower card.  Scott had a great conversation with the florist about our adoption.
We then went to get some lunch and the hunt began for a photo album that we could give our birthmom as she stated she would like for us to send her pictures.  We were also able to visit a friend that afternoon as he was in the same city with his child in the hospital.  What a blessing to get to hold that sweet baby knowing that mine would soon be in my arms.
Scott and I ate dinner and called the hospital to make sure she was ready for us.  We went back to the room and the 4 of us had really good conversation.  Grateful that Scott is a good talker and I did not have to carry the conversation by myself.  I was overwhelmed and amazed by the beauty and courage of this young woman.  God blessed us with getting introduced to those two girls that day.  We found out some fun information and I will journal that for Josie.  Our birthmom had asked earlier if we would incorporate Nicole into her name.  We told her we would be more than happy to do that.  She asked us that evening what we had named her: Josie Sophia Nicole.  She stated she loved the Sophia Nicole and I let her know Josie is after my grandmother.
She had some friends and family stop by around 8:30 p.m. and as her discharge was set for 9, we excused ourselves so they could say their goodbyes.
We had an excellent nurse and Scott and I were given a room down the hall to wait.  It ended up being around 10:45 when we were called back to our birthmom's room.  We met a few members of her family and it was a little intense.  I had selfishly hoped we could have a few more moments alone with our birthmom and Josie, but I am grateful for the time we did have.  It all happened so quickly and I am still not able to speak or type out the words about those last few minutes, but I will say I have locked them forever in my heart as the most precious moments of my life as I shared a hug with Josie and her birthmom with tears streaming down both of our faces.  Then she was gone.
I did fall apart then and God bless Scott for being the amazing husband that he is.  We went back to our room and just held Josie and waited for her 48 hour test in order to take her home.
I have treasured each moment of having her home so far and we will continue to write about our adventures in parenthood.  We will have follow ups with our agency who will continue to work with our birthmom and we will wait the 3 months for our court date to finalize everything.
Thank you for your support and continued prayers.  Please continue to pray for our birthmom and that she will have peace with her decision.  So much love in our hearts for her as we cannot help but look at Josie and see her sacrifice.  We serve an amazing God.

Waiting

     Waiting.  I think I have said that word at least twice a day since October.  Not that I am complaining, as we are grateful that people ask us about where we are in the adoption process.  We love to share our journey with others and help them to understand adoption a little better, but there has to be a better word to describe this!  Preparing, Organizing, Agonizing, Anticipating, Eager, Encouraged, Hopeful, Nervous, Excited, Patient, Impatient, Blessed, Expectant...Waiting.  It is hard to describe what THIS is.
I think I can speak for both of us when I say this is by far the hardest and most exciting time of our life.  I find myself every few days peeking into the extra closet where the carseat and diaper bag are kept, just to prove that this is all real and our lives could change any second.
     I find myself hoping that some day adoption will not be so mysterious in the eyes of so many.  I want adoption to not only touch the lives of others but to transform families.  I urge everyone to start praying and searching their hearts for how God would want them to act regarding such a great need in our world.  I do not think that all families are called to be adoptive families, but I do think we are called to do our part regarding adoption/orphan care.  If you have questions or want someone to pray with you, let us know.  Please discover what that means for your family and follow through!  One word of caution; once you start praying about adoption you will not be able to remove the burden of these children from your heart until you act.  So be prepared!  You will be blessed!

Adoption Auction

I know what some of you are thinking...where in the world have the updates been?  Well, there just hasn't been a lot to update until now.  In the last few weeks we have seen God do some truly wonderful things.

In an effort to raise more funds we have decided to hold an auction which will be held on December 17 from 7:00-9:00 pm (doors open at 6:30) at First Baptist Church of Charlestown, IN where Scott is one of the pastors.  In order to hold an auction you must have items to auction off and boy do we ever have items to auction off!  In recent weeks we have received tickets to Holiday World, homemade items, artwork, exercise equipment, gym memberships, and so much more.  What a blessing!!!

On Thanksgiving evening Scott received a phone call from a couple in our orphan care group.  They had raffled off a 50" plasma tv (to raise support for their adoption).  The couple that won the tv said they did not need it and  to do with it what they wanted.  The couple from our group was calling to donate the tv to us so that we could raffle it off!  What an amazing gift and demonstration of God's family supporting one another in fulfilling our calling to care for widows and orphans.  We will begin the raffle at the auction.

There is more to tell, but that will have to do for now.  We are truly excited as we await God's continued blessings in our efforts to bring home more McDowell's.

God bless,

Scott and Jessie

Activated!!

Today, October 4, 2011, we are officially on our agencies site and our profile is going out to birth mothers.  What an exciting step in our adoption journey!  As we celebrated over the phone we also began to think about what this means for us in the process of bringing home "more McDowell's."

This step means that we could potentially receive a phone call at anytime.  The average wait time for a couple in our program is 4-6 months, however the key word here is average.  To obtain an average requires that some numbers are higher and some are lower.  In addition, we are on a short call list in the event that our agency receives a phone call from the hospital.

Our activation also means that we need to be prepared financially.  To this point we are paid in full, however there is still a long way to go.  The adoption costs can be upwards of $29,000.  We have greatly enjoyed putting together our puzzle and writing in the names of those who have so generously supported God's calling on our lives to adopt.  Having said that, we have a lot more puzzle pieces that need names.  Please feel free to  pass along our information and story to anyone you feel may be willing to help.

As always we are truly grateful for your constant prayers and support.  We are so excited to someday introduce baby McDowell to all of our friends and family who played such an important role in bringing them into our family.

Riding in Style

Last weekend we got our first baby item…a car seat!  The agency we are working with has advised us to wait on purchasing all of the other baby related items until we have our baby and are bringing him or her home.  They did, however, explain that we would need a car seat and should look into purchasing one.

So, last weekend we went to a shop in Lexington with Scott’s mom Sandi, that is wall to wall baby related items.  We knew that there would be options, but there seemed to be hundreds of car seats, strollers, and car seat/stroller combos to choose from!  Each stroller and car seat had unique features and gadgets.  We had a lot of fun looking at them and settled on the perfect one.

We then spent some time wandering about the store looking at the many things now available for parents to purchase for their children.  Scott saw a cup that is impossible for kids to spill and thought that the same technology should be applied to the strollers.  There was also lots of furniture, clothes, diaper bags, and everything else a child could ever need.

We left the store excited for having purchased the very first item for our child.  We look forward to the day when we get a phone call from our agency telling us to put this car seat in and head to the hospital.  The whole process was truly exciting as it made the reality of “more McDowell’s” seem that much closer.

Home Study

One week ago today we were wrapping up our home study.  If you do not know, a home study is when an case worker comes into your home to ensure that it is safe for an adoptive child to be raised in and ask prospective adoptive parents about their family, values, aspirations, methods of discipline, etc...  This is a big step because it is typically the last step before adoptive couples become "active", meaning their profile becomes available for birth mothers to see.

Like every other adoptive couple we spent a lot of time cleaning.  This was not because our home was so dirty but because it gives you something to do.  It makes you feel like you are doing something to help the process rather than just waiting.  While cleaning Jessie and I had lot's of conversations about the process thus far and how great it has been to see God provide in such unexpected ways.  In the last year or two God has surrounded us with adoptive couples who have patiently answered our questions, prayed with us, and journeyed alongside us.

Back to the home study.  Our interview went well and we received lot's of positive feedback so while we are still awaiting approval (this takes 4-6 weeks) it seems that everything went well.

Please continue to pray that God provides us with patience and peace as we await our approval.  Please also feel free to circulate the information concerning our adoption.  At this time, other than your prayers, our biggest need is financial.  While we know this is a big task, our God is bigger than any financial obstacle and we rest in the knowledge that He can and will provide.

Puzzle Fundraiser

Scott and I have decided to do a puzzle fundraiser.  We do need help to bring our baby home.  Located on the right side of our page is a picture of an elephant collage jigsaw puzzle.  We are suggesting that our friends and family buy a piece of the puzzle for $10 (if you would like to give more, please feel free to do that!  We have been asked about accepting checks or cash or even anonymous donations and those can be mailed to us or dropped off at Scott's office. )  We will in turn write your name on the back of a puzzle piece and will  hang the puzzle in the baby's room.  A wonderful keepsake for our child, and also a reminder for us, of those who helped us bring our child home.  We appreciate your support and are so thankful for the amazing people God has placed in our lives to encourage us.