Travels

Plans so far have fallen in place for most part!! The flight from Palm Springs was $300 (not a typo!) cheaper than San Diego and also much cheaper than LAX. Go figure!

So I was going to beg a ride off Richard (really, is he allowed to say no?), but then as strange enough coincidence, a friend of Gramz was moving for a month to palm springs. Today. So we helped her pack her car, and she dropped me at a motel 6. Woohoo! First flight out tomorrow, 2 layovers, and I get to Cedar Rapids!

Keeping this brief as I manage to barely type on the iphone, too cheap for the $3 wifi through this cheap motel :)
Update from the journey tomorrow!!
And then Richard joins me on Thursday! Crazy way that airfares work, he gets to fly from Carlsbad for cheaper than San Diego! Totally not fair!! ;)

Updates, 6 day countdown!

The last doctor appointment had the birthmom at 2 cm dilated and about 75% effaced.
Which could mean any time, or still 2 weeks away.

With the due date officially being next weekend, the doctor had been thinking of scheduling an induction. Would make planning for our arrival & stay that much easier, and from talking to the birthmom, she's kind of ready to get through these next steps and start rebuilding her life.

The next doctor appointment is scheduled on Monday, and depending on how everything is going, an induction is tentatively scheduled for Friday! 6 days from now!!

Assuming the baby stays put until then, Richard and I would fly out either Wednesday or Thursday, be there for the birth (not in delivery room, but in the hospital), and not have to do last minute frantic travel plans. Obviously the easier option, but it does all depend...

Once in Iowa, when the baby arrives we will be staying in the hospital for those 48 hours. The birthmom has already spoken with the social worker and her doctor to make this able to happen, and she had been the one to suggest it. We'll have a room, and the baby will room with us. Crazy, huh?

At the 72 hour mark after birth the papers are submitted to the state to terminate rights of the birthmom. This is different in each state, and Iowa has it at 72 hours. From there we have ICPC to wait for, from another website:

Referred to within the adoption community as ICPC, the Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children governs the interstate movement of foster and adoptive children within the U.S. Both the "sending" and "receiving" states must agree to terms of the adoption before the child can leave the original state. Because this process can take as long as two weeks, many adoptive family members spend their first days together in a hotel getting to know one another.

While there and waiting, we'll meet with our attorney some, have pediatrician visits, and also have to get the baby cleared to fly at the young age she'll be.

Richard will return home at some point in there, probably working short days while taking on getting the other kids to/from school. Once we're cleared I'll return home with a baby!

So that's the potential plan. For now.

Turning nursery to a forest!

So Richard went out of town.
All of last week.

Before he left, wanted to know if we would be okay without him here. You know, just to be sure....

I told him, of course! We would be great
...as long as *we* didn't go into labor...
...and as long as he brought home the overhead projector from work.

Done! and Done!

So after the walls were appropriately pink,
I got to work (with wine) on the rest,


Followed by getting some brown on the walls.
Everything is penciled in

the design on the right wall, was from the computer. A wall stencil that I was (1) to cheap to buy at $110 and (2) scared the kids would peel off within 10 minutes. The design on the left I penciled in after being comfortable with what I was doing (more or less).

branches & leaves up!


Flowers & color up!

And birds. Must have birds.

Nursery turned pink...

Way back when I was pregnant with Wyatt, I spent week painting the room that would be his. This link take you to the photos from when I did his room, crazy to look back at!!
So the regular blog has photos of his new room (which he is loving!!),

and I've been taking this week of Richard being gone (work trip) to work on a room that is pink!

As a boy room. Very blue.

Originally we had talked about maybe painting the bright blue wall a more feminine color. And then re-painting the sea life in bright girly colors. Keeping the theme and not covering up the time & love having gone into the room.

And then I came to my sense. Pink. We need to have a pink room if we're finally having a girl! Pink pink pink!!!

So Richard actually chose the two colors after I told him plan of contrasting colors for top & bottom. He flew away on Sunday and I got to work!!



Taping to get the horizontal divide in
The Color:

Maybe needing another coat...
Painted & tape removed!
And then time to start the hard work,
projecting image that we want to use onto wall,
tracing it on (left-handed, and non-artistic, by the way...).
and then painting within the lines.
yikes!
Those are work in progress,
so to be continued....

:) Go team!

The Conference Call

The expectant mom that our agency had been in contact with last week (and weeks prior) still had not had her medical records sent over. Hesitation on the conference call made it not seem like it would really happen.

Last month our profile had been sent to a birthmom in Iowa. She declined due to wanting a biracial family. That situation did not work out, so she decided she wanted to speak with her second choice-us!

This afternoon we talked for close to an hour (with the director of the agency on the line as well), and her main concerns were wanting a family that would be accepting of a daughter that is not Caucasian when the rest of their family is.

We went on to talk about other things, things her family likes to do, hobbies, goals, all of that. What she would like for her unborn child. A very hard conversation to have someone! I'm still not sure I asked all the right questions, or gave all of the right answers. Wondering if they could hear on my end as Wyatt & Brett broke a snowglobe and lightbulb (we decorated for Halloween today) and I tried to stay calm and not strangle them.

But...
as of now she wants to go with us!
We are about a month and half away from due date,
so we're starting to get things in order (rooms & money mostly!!) to get a new addition to our family!!

Cautiously optimistic.

Oops!

The "presentation" went great I suppose.
The birthmom liked our profile.

She ended up in labor early....Today!!!

Unfortunately, the ultrasound was wrong.
Baby was a boy!
Hoping and thinking for the best for the birthmom, the baby, and the new family who will be chosen to adopt him.

We're still holding out for the pink!