Where do I even begin? It has been an intensely incredible week. I still can hardly believe that as I sit here writing this update, little Samara is snuggled against me sound asleep. She was born on December 27th weighing 6 lbs, 15 oz, and was 20” long. Her birth father is African American, and her birth mother is Caucasian (Swedish/German mix). She has a head of dark hair, dark brown eyes, and olive skin. Her fingers are longer than any newborn I’ve ever seen, and she uses them too!  Samara is strong, already picking her head up to look at you when you have her on your shoulder, and gripping you, your clothes, or her pacifier with fierceness.

How it happened: We were in Ohio visiting Ruben’s family after Christmas, and 30 women and children relatives were streaming into his mom’s house for a Tupperware fundraiser party (for the adoption). My phone rang and I could tell our caseworker was grinning from ear to ear: she tells us we that not only have we been chosen by a birth mom, but that she has already delivered a baby girl! The birth mom, Ann, had walked into the hospital and called our agency while in labor on December 27th. She gave birth to Samara (we chose the name; it means “held and guarded by God”) at 8:15 pm that night. On December 28th, the agency sent a caseworker over with 4 profile books including ours. As ours (Roxanne, since our main contact Leah was out of town for Christmas).  

Because the birth father is unknown other than his first name and race, our legal team cautioned us from coming until Monday January 4th. This way they could run background checks on the mom and searches for the dad. To date he has not signed up for the putative father registry, a database where men who know they impregnated a woman can sign up to be notified when a baby matching their criteria is born. We signed a document accepting the risk he could still show up and state a claim to her, but at this point it would be very rare and almost impossible for him to actually present a valid custody case. Until the adoption is finalized, we will be visited once a month by our home study agency to ensure everything is as it should be. If all goes well, the adoption will be complete in June of this year; when a court date is set to make it official, we will travel back down to Florida with Samara. Technically we could do the final court appearance in Virginia, but we would be taking on extra expense and time to hire a local lawyer and court fees. As of now all that is covered in the adoption costs.

In the meantime, we will continue to love on and enjoy our sweet daughter, pray for the grant we applied for to come through, and fundraise to pay back a $22,000 loan. A huge financial blessing was that the birth mother expenses were only $2,400 as compared to the average of $8,000 since it happened so fast. Because we couldn’t legally take custody of Samara for several days after her hospital release, we had a little over $500 in cradle care fees (the foster family Samara stayed with).  Speaking of the cradle care family, they have a 3 ½ year old adopted daughter who fell in love with Samara; our caseworker said that as she took Samara out to the car, the little girl followed saying “Baby!, Baby!”  We are very grateful that she had such a loving family to be with until we could take her home.

Samara had her first wellness check this afternoon; she is a bit underweight and jaundiced, so we took her for testing at the outpatient children’s hospital. Tomorrow we should find out her test results, and a week from today we have another appointment with the pediatrician to check her weight.

Thank you to great “family” Kelly and Mike; we have been able to stay with them in their comfortable home for the last few days, and tomorrow we head east to stay with Ruben’s sister Mary Ann and her family. Due to child trafficking across state lines, we have to wait on approval by the Florida state government  to let us leave the state with Samara and return home.  Since our second wellness check is a week from today (Tuesday), we will come back west to Mike and Kelly's home for the doctor and remaining in-state days.  No hotels for baby Samara!

As a little side note of another example of God’s goodness, my long-time friend Andy asked what I wished for my 2015 birthday year. I responded “to adopt.” Technically, my wish came true as we got the call on December 28, 2015!

Looking forward to all the days, weeks, and years to come (God-willing). Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers. We LOVE being parents!