Journal of the Journey

In the spirit of so many of my friends blogging and me getting so much joy out of reading it I thought I would start blogging myself. I thought a good place to start is at the beginning with when Isabella came into our life. Some of you have already read this but it makes for a good starting point:

12/11/07
Well, the last several months have been very emotional, stressful,
tearful, joyful, exciting, scarey, ... well, a lot has been going on.
Many of you knew that Karen and I got pregnant back in August. Most of you actually got to see our first ultrasound pics.We were over the top excited since we've been trying to get pregnant for over 4 years trying different methods from the ordinary to the bizarre. So when we got pregnant, via an embryo transfer, finally we felt our prayers had been answered. Shortly after I had emailed all of you to tell you the wonderful news Karen started to bleed heavily over labor day weekend. You can imagine the stress of this happening when every doctors office is closed and our only option
was to go to the ER which our doctor told us not to bother.
Well, the next day we got into the doctors office expecting the worst.
To our disbelief there was still a viable pregnancy. We were shocked and decided to
move on with caution. Well, a week later we went into the office for
another Ultrasound and no sign of a baby. We were crushed.
We both felt helpless and thinking it wasn't in the cards for us to have children. I had always been the one to stay positive and hopeful over the last 4 years and I finally had reached the end. I couldn't take anymore. Well, because I couldn't do it anymore didn't mean God couldn't show
his power and show how mighty he really is..... So we move on to story
number 2.
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October 30, Karen gets a call from a lady from our church saying, "You
don't know me but your name was given to me as being interested in
adopting a baby". What happened was there was this 17 yr. old girl in
our church who had hid her pregnancy from her family, friends, and the
church. Well, the church found out and advised her to tell her
parents.
To avoid telling them she came back to the church and told them she
had a miscarriage and she wasn't pregnant anymore. So on October 28th
her water broke. She went about her business, went to church, went
out to lunch with family, went shopping, etc. At 5pm she was in the
bathroom in a lot of pain and her mom realized something was wrong.
Her mom went into the bathroom and realized.. suprise... her daughter
is in labor and about to deliver a baby (Can you imagine that's how
you find out your daughter is pregnant?). The baby was breach. So the
birthmothers Mom,Debbie, had to deliver this baby on their bathroom
floor. Two days go by and birthmom's mother is pressing the church to
contact us. So back to the phone call. The lady tells Karen that a
child advocate has been contacted and if we want this baby we better
get up to the hospital and see her and bring her home. Karen calls me
not able to speak from shock, excitement, and overcome with emotion.
Me, Mr. practical and logical, goes B.S. There is no way we are going
to be allowed to take a baby home from the hospital when there's no
power of attorney or anything. Besides, it was my understanding that
in the state of Missouri every child given up for adoption has to go
into foster care. Karen and I aren't ceritified to be foster parents.
So all this is going through my head from excitement thinking what if
it is true to fear that I'm going to be locked up for kidnapping. So,
I checked into it and the laws have changed. While no lawyer will
ever tell you to handle it this way we can be claimed guardians for
the welfare of this baby. So, we rush up to the hospital. Karen's
boss drives her. I meet a friend of ours at our house because we have
no way of taking a baby home in my truck. Karen's car at that time was
in the shop. So I meet Karen at the hospital. It was truly amazing.
We got to the meet the birthmom, birthdad, and their moms. Soooo, we
took Isabella Josephine home October 30th. We went to court a couple
of weeks ago to take legal guardianship of her. So in about 6 months
we will be legally her parents. It has been an amazing few months!