And Baby Makes Three...

With patience and faith we waited for our miracle. And now with love, we joyfully announce the arrival of our angel… Avery Marie… born July 6, 2008 at 12:45 pm...6lbs 13 ounces, 19 inches long.
We started this new adoption journey last May (2007) with Bethany Christian Service, and here we are almost a year later and at last… we are a forever family. God is so amazing.

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We were accepted into Bethany’s domestic infant adoption program in June 2007. We started classes with Bethany in November of 2007 and completed those in January 2008. After completing the classes we had to put together a profile/scrapbook for Bethany to show birth moms and dads. This profile would also be available on Bethany’s website under “Family Profiles”. We completed our profile around the end of February early March and then we started the wait. “The Wait” ... sound familiar, this was very familiar to us but we seemed to be much better at this… God teaches us lessons and so many times we don’t even realize they are happening, what an awesome God.
In April 2008 we received an email from Bethany with an adoption opportunity… would we be interested in Bethany showing our profile??? The birth mom was Hispanic (she is from Guatemala). Phillip and I prayed about this… on May 1, 2008 we emailed Bethany back and said… yes, we were interested. May 13, 2008…we received “The Call”. We had been chosen by the birth mom. I can not put into words the joy and excitement we felt and we could not get over how fast it had happened considering we had just submitted our profile in March… (Gods time, not ours. : )
On May 22, 2008 we met the birth mom, such a blessing to have had that opportunity. We were told during this visit that the baby was due June 30, 2008… everyone was certain the baby would come early at least 2 weeks early. The early date was based on the one ultra sound that the birth mom had. We went on vacation June 7 and felt sure we would get the call to head back home for the birth… No call. : ( June 26th rolled around and we were getting a little nervous since everyone thought the baby would come early, so we called Bethany and they set up another meeting with the birth mom. We met the birth mom on June 28th and it was another wonderful visit. We were able to get pictures of the birth mom and her 18 month old daughter and were also able to get pictures of all of us together. This was such a blessing, one day we will be able to show Avery her birth mom.
July 3, 2008 we received a call from Bethany rep, the birth mom was having pain and was headed to the hospital… oh my, this is really happening. After getting to the hospital the birth mom was sent home due to only being dilated to 1 1/2…. but we found out based on the ultra sound that… “It’s a Girl”
On July 6th Bethany called at 7:30am to inform us that the birth mom was going back to the hospital. Bethany's rep told us to sit tight and they would call once they had more information… "birth mom dilated to a 4, they are keeping her." Phillip insisted we go to church to keep our minds off things; I wanted to stay by the phone. I kept my phone on vibrate during church, but nothing happened. After church I walked to the car realizing I had 2 voice mails (cell phones are not all they are cracked up to be)… We needed to get to the hospital!! I was trying to get Phillip to come on and he is in the parking lot trying to get a one pitch ball game up for Friday night : ) I told him, “Phillip, we need to go… We need to go now”. So off we went to the hospital. We were going to have a baby…


The ride to the hospital was terrible; it rained so hard that we could only go down the interstate 50-55 miles an hour. I just wanted to get to the hospital! Bethany’s rep called and told me the birth mom was dilated to a 7 and she wanted me in the delivery room. I wanted to be in there so bad but the rain kept me from seeing our beautiful daughter born… but she was here… Talking to the Bethany rep on the phone she told us she was here and that she was beautiful, but…she was born with a cleft palate and cleft lip. http://www.choa.org/default.aspx?id=779 Talking to the Bethany's rep my facial expression changed when she told me the news… Phillip asks me, “is something is wrong”? I just shook my head yes. After I got off the phone I told him what was wrong and this is what he asks me… “Is she healthy?” I said yes and he said… “That is all that matters”. I love this man so much. The next thing he said to me I will always remember… “Gina, don’t you think it would be selfish of us to not take this child because she has something wrong with her mouth, something that can be corrected” Wow, what an amazing man my husband is, so lucky to have him by my side for the last 18 years.

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We waited to start a blog until after our 10 day wait was up... It's official the 10 days are up today7-17-08. The birth mom had 10 days to change her mind or keep her original adoption plan. We would like to thank each and every one of you that prayed for us with us and for Baby Avery. We love you all!!

Please journey with us on our new blog... God Bless