This post is most likely going to be long because I want to remember every single detail of the best few days of our lives 😊
After Dustin and I found out on Thursday, February 21st that our first birth mom was changing her mind, we spent that entire weekend grieving and just spending time together. It was hard and not what we thought we wanted, but so many people rallied around us to support us. People texted and called and my sister’s small group provided meals for us every night for a week–which was such a big help! The following Monday, we talked with the adoption specialist from Texas Adoption Agency about figuring out the money we had lost. She told us we would be put on the priority list for drop-ins that matched our criteria (babies already born and moms then decide to place for adoption). I asked her an average of how long she thought that would be for us and she told us it could be anywhere from the next day to 6 months away. I prepared my heart for waiting for a few months.
We talked with our adoption consultant, Sabrina, (we love you!!!) from FAC on Tuesday night (the 26th) about how we were feeling and processing emotions and at that point, Dustin said he wasn’t ready for us to become active with them again. Let me repeat….we were not putting ourselves back out there. It was the last thing on our minds at this point. The thing that was keeping Dustin back was the financial aspect–and I get it, we lost a lot of money. So we had begun to think of maybe fundraising again before putting our profile back out there. And I was just tired.
Fast forward to Thursday, February 28th. I was at school and Dustin was in Birmingham watching basketball games. We both got a text from the Texas adoption specialist telling us about a baby boy that had been born the night before at 11:46PM but was now in the NICU on oxygen and a feeding tube. She included a few pictures and a video of the most alert baby who had the most beautiful head of hair. I cried. I immediately wanted to say yes without even asking Dustin. (We didn’t even know a price at this point either ha!) Because Dustin was at the basketball games, he could only text. After a few back and forth texts, we decided to step out on faith and say YES to this baby! We were told it was between us and another couple and that we would find out on Friday. I was on pins and needles.
Around 7PM Thursday night, Stacey (the adoption specialist from TX) called to let me know we had been chosen!!! I couldn’t believe it! I cried but then I also asked if there was any chance of the birth parents changing their minds. We wouldn’t be losing any money if they did, but I didn’t want us to fly out to Texas and have to fly back empty-handed and with another broken heart. She assured me she had asked them multiple times and they were 100% sure. Dustin finally got home and we began the frantic rush to pack, book plane tickets, and get everything in order to leave the following day. We did tell our immediate families that night, but we decided to keep it to ourselves just in case the birth parents did change their mind.
We got to the airport around 9:30AM. We had slept less than 6 hours the night before and were exhausted! We also realized how I need a bigger car ha!
I mean, look at all of that stuff!
At our gate ready to leave for our connecting flight to ATL! This was everything we carried onto the plane ha! We gate checked the stroller and car seat. I had a carry on my purse and Dustin had a backpack and the diaper bag.
We flew standby and we were bumped from our first flight due to bad weather earlier that morning. We finally got on the next flight (around 2:46 pm cst)!
Headed to ATL to fly to San Antonio!
We had a 3 hour layover in ATL so we went to the Sky Club and met…
Big Boi from OutKast!!!!!! Horrible angle of me but WHATEVER! I couldn’t believe he was sitting right next to us.
I literally died when he sat next to me, so I was that annoying person who asked him for a picture. He was super nice and put on his sunglasses for the picture ha! I also checked out his Louis Vuitton rolling suitcase LOL
We ended up getting bumped from the next two flights, and our last chance of flying out that day was a flight leaving Atlanta at 9:58PM. Friday was not only an exhausting travel day, but all of the emotions I was feeling were exhausting. Would they change their mind? Was I really about to become a mom? I was too afraid to let myself get excited. Adoption is hard like that.
We finally had seats on the last flight!!
We arrived in San Antonio at 11:30PM. We knew that Corpus Christi was about 120 miles away, but I really wanted us to push and try to make it to the hospital so I could see the baby that I had been trying to get to all day–hopefully, our future son!
Once we gathered our luggage from baggage claim and the baggage claim office, we went to go pick up our rental car. After I saw the line, I knew it was unrealistic to try to drive. We got our car and drove to the outskirts of San Antonio and ended up stopping at about 1:30AM.
We woke up at 6AM later that morning (exhausted, for sure, but getting us prepared for baby!!) and got ready to head to Corpus Christi. It took us a little longer than I thought it would getting there and then we ended up going to the wrong hospital 🙈 At that point I wondered…was God teaching me perseverance or was this a bad sign? But after talking to our adoption specialist on the phone (who was waiting for us), she went ahead and told me that papers had been signed and the baby was ours!! I could finally breathe.
We got to the correct hospital 😂and went to meet our birth parents first. Let me just say, God has blessed us beyond belief with such a wonderful adoption situation. Harrison’s birth parents are wonderful people and we meshed so well together when we first met. Lots of tears were shed and then she was ready to take us to the NICU to meet our son!
If you have not seen the video of us meeting Harrison for the first time, please go to my IG and look at that post. It is such a beautiful moment that I am forever grateful was captured for me to look back at forever.
After our failed match, I wrote about (and reminded myself) that God is good and only does good things–which meant that our failed match was for our good. While I didn’t understand it at the time, I am so glad that it was only a short time before I saw God’s purpose for us. I could never imagine life without Harrison. He is the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen, and I am constantly thanking God for making me his mommy. This was God’s plan all along.
The next few pictures are of our first few days with Harrison. We learned how to feed him correctly all while he increased his bottle intake and decreased his tube feedings. We’re currently still in the NICU but we are hopeful to be released within the next few days. Please pray that Harrison continues to take all of his bottles and that he gains weight!
Daddy holding Harrison for the first time!
After bath time!
Daddy changing his first diaper! And please look at Harrison LOL!
Mommy feeding Harrison for the first time….and making sure he was breathing ha!
Those cheeks! I kiss them all the time!
Shaneyfelt Party of 3!!
