We are heading home today! We are all so excited to blow this place! And I CANNOT wait to see my kids! Gosh, I miss them so much!
Sunday is going to be a family day with grandparents and a very special Aunt and Uncle! But from Monday on everyone is welcome to come visit us (Brinley). We are very excited to show her off and welcome all guests! Just give us a call before hand so we know when to expect you.
I can't believe Miss Brinley is one week old already! But then again it seems like she has been in our lives forever! I just can't wait to get home to share her with you all! This hotel life is getting old fast! We have been without hot water TWICE!! I let the first time slide, but the second time I 'had' to complain! Earned us a free night! Hmph! Not much to say, we are just haning out waiting for inter-state clearance so we can come home. Hopefuly that will happen Friday sometime and we will be home Saturday night. Keep your fingers crossed!
Ok, now for the pictures, what you want anyway! 
Well kinda! Brinley was discharged from the hospital today! YAY! We have just been hanging out in the hotel room. So much better than the little room that we were hanging out in.
Brinley is so precious! So far she is such a good baby. She eats every 3-4 hours, is quielty awake for a little bit after eating and then sleeps! I sure hope this keeps up!
Today was a real emotional day! First off, I got into a 'discussion' with the hospital pediatrician. Because of Deanna's past (nothing too serious), the doctor feels that Brinley needs to stay in the hospital one more night for observation. I tried to reassure her that I am a NICU nurse and know signs to look for for a baby in distress and would immediately bring her in. She wouldn't go for it. I kept asking her what exactly she was looking for and she couldn't give me an answear. At one point she goes 'I'm sure you have more experience than me' and I was like 'Yeah, I'm sure I do!'. Anway I couldn't get her to budge. Brinley is so fine. She eats, sleeps, poops, and pees! All her vital sighns have always been great. There is absolutely no reason for her to stay in the hospital one more night. Argh! But there is nothing I can do about it so I might as well just deal with it.
We spent the morning in Deanna's room with her. She was discharged today. It was sooo sad to leave her room and know she was leaving the hospital without a baby. We were all crying, even Sam was a bit teary. Part of me feels like such a heal taking her baby from her, even though it is her choice. The other part of me is so estatic to be given the honor of raising this little gem. Sam & I both feel like we have known Deanna forever as opposed to just a few days. I know I've said it before, but I just can't quit marveling at what a strong and unselfish woman she is. She knows she can't parent Brinley and has shown the greatest love of all, by letting us do it. Sam & I saw a quote today that we both love. 'I didn't give you to them, I gave them to you.' That is how we will explain everything to Brinley.
In the afternoon we went to the adoption agency to sign papers. Brinley is now Brinley Kayrene-Marissa TAYLOR!!! WOW! When we were done signing, we were getting ready to walk out of the gals office, and Sam turns to her and says 'Um, did you want a check?' She was like 'Oh, yeah, I almost forgot!' I told Sam he shouldn't have said anything! LOL
After that we hung out at the agency for a bit with all the workers and Deanna. I can tell Deanna is a favorite client of theirs. She is such a hoot! Then we took Deanna to her hotel room and went back to the hospital to spend the evening with Brinley.
One more night without her! :(
Today was good, even though we got kicked out of the room we stayed in last night. We spent the day in a little feeding room. Two hard chairs and dim lighting. Oh well at least we were with Brinley! But I have to leave her tonight. It is kinda good for me, as now I really know what the parents at work feel like! And my baby is healthy.
Ok, enough of that, here is what you really want....pictues!
I thought I would take this time to tell Brinley's story and how she came to be a part of our family.
At the end of June we received a call from our case worker (Beth) at PLAN. She told us about a Birth Mom (BM) in TX that was due to deliver at the end of July. Our profile was submitted to her to look over. I talked to Beth a few times about this BM and she had never heard anything. The last time I talked to Beth about this BM was at the end of July. Since we hadn't heard anything we assumed either someone else had been chosen or the BM decided to parent the baby.
Fast forward to Aug. 12----Our home phone rang at 8:50 am. Every time our phone rings we always think "Could it be PLAN". Since it was only 8:50 am, I figured it was some telemarketing place or one of Samantha's friends. Well all of a sudden Samantha is running up to me yelling "Mommy! It's PLAN! Mommy! It's PLAN!". Of course by the time she gets the phone to me, it had stopped ringing. She was so upset that she hadn't got it to me in time, but I reassured her that if it was important they would call my cell phone or leave a message. Well, 2 minutes later my cell rings.....it's PLAN! I answer with a tentative hello. "Hi Tiffany, this is Sandy from PLAN.....You've been chosen for a baby and she will be born tomorrow!" At this point I am stuttering and going "What, What, ok". Our regular worker was out of the office so Sandy was giving us all the info. She told me to get in touch with Alternatives in Motion (AIM) adoption agency in TX. I get off the phone and start yelling "We're getting a baby! We're getting a baby!" The kids are yelling, we are laughing and dancing around the house. I call Sam and get his voice mail, I leave him a message something like "We've been chosen for a baby, we need to be in TX tomorrow". I'm walking on air and my heart is beating so fast, I think it will explode.
I finally calm myself down and call AIM. They tell me the story of the BM and as I'm listening I start to peace things together. I figure out she is the one that was going to deliver at the end of July. I guess they had her dates wrong. They give me some more info and the BM's phone number and tell me to call them back when we have travel arrangements made. I'm still thinking 'is this really happening??'.
FINALLY, Sam gets home around 9:45 am. He also doesn't believe it could be real. He keeps asking me "Is this a sure thing?".
We go about making a million phone calls to friends and family to let them know our good news. Sam calls the airline to make reservations. I'm running around the house doing laundry and packing. We talk to Sheri and Tyson and ask them to take Samantha and Carsen. They agree without any hesitation. Bless them. In the middle of all this we are running the kids to golf, picking up from golf, taking Samantha to Camp Paw Paw.
We finally have time to sit down and call the BM. She is super friendly and puts us at ease. She says she likes the fact that I am a nurse. We talk for about 20 minutes and tell her we will see her the next day.
We make more phone calls, do more laundry, pack more, make arrangements for Nadia to take care of the animals. Everything is in overdrive! It is Samantha's day to bring her rats to Camp Paw Paw, so in the middle of everything, I haul Damon and Eric to camp.
We decide to meet Tyson and Sheri in Clackamas for dinner to give them the kids and to celebrate Sheri's birthday. But before we go there we want to get Samantha a cell phone so she can call us whenever she wants. Also, there is a possibility that this baby could be a boy. As most of you know, we had planed on a girl and had only girl things. Not even anything neutral! All PINK! So while Sam took Samantha to get her cell phone I went over to Target and grabbed a bunch of boy stuff.
We make it to dinner only a few minutes late. Have a nice relaxing dinner with Ty, Sheri, & Jackson. All the while expecting a phone call telling us someone had made a mistake and we were not getting this baby. We were just in a state of suspended animation, where nothing seemed real. We made it home around 11 pm, our flight out of Portland was at 6 am! Which meant we had to leave Salem at 3 am! Only four more hours! And we still had TONS of stuff to do! Needless to say we did not go to bed that night.
We made it out of Salem at 3:15 am (pretty good for us, only 15 minutes late!). Got to the airport a little after 4 am. Now, we took our stroller/car seat combo with us. I did not want to check it as it is brand new and I know how baggage handlers handle stuff. So we gate checked it. Guess how many people said "Hey! Your missing the baby!" No kidding!
As we are sitting on the plane waiting for take off, Sam goes to me "Have we talked to anyone at PLAN after talking to AIM to tell them that we are going to TX" I was like "Uhhh no! And guess what I didn't call AIM to tell them our travel plans!" So hear we are going to TX to get a baby, and neither adoption agency knows our travel plans! So the whole time we are in the air I am thinking, I hope everything is still a go!
We arrive in TX at 11:45 AM TX time and I immediately call AIM. The lady (Melinda) that is working with the BM (Deanna) is at the hospital with Deanna. I call her cell phone and tell her we are at the airport. She is so nice and says well good! No baby yet, come straight to the hospital! I asked if that was ok with Deanna, and she said yes Deanna wants us there!!! She tells me the hospital is Houston Northwest Medical Center. After we get our rental car I plug the hospital into my GPS on my phone and we are on our way. After a bit of confusion we arrive at the hospital. We are driving around looking for a parking spot when Sam says "What is the name of the hospital" and I'm like "Houston Northwest Medical Center!!". Then he says "Tiff, we are at NorthEAST Medical Center!" Crap!!! So we drive back the way we came and finally arrive at the right place. My heart is going sooooo fast at this point.
We get to the room that Deanna is in and Sam and I just kinda look at each other like this is it! We go in and Deanna is laying in bed laboring away and Melinda is in there with her. There is never any awkwardness! We just immediately start chatting like we have known each other for years! Deanna was at 5 cm and no pain killers yet. She does not like epidurals so is just going for it. Finally at about 6.5 cm, her contracitons were one on top of each other and she had one dose of Stadol, a pain killer. Then things moved very rapidly after that and she quicly progressed to 10 cm.
When it was time for her to push, Sam stepped out of the room, but she told me to stay! After FOUR pushes Miss Brinley Kayrene-Marissa was born at 3:44 pm!!!! I am able to cut the cord and the RN takes the baby to the warmer. I go between Deanna offering encouragement and gratitude and Brinley. After everything is done for Brinley the RN wraps her up and takes her to Deanna, at which point Deanna says "No, give her to Tiffany, she gets to hold her first, she's the mom!!!"
I have spoken to a few of you about how I was concerned about not feeling that instant love and attachment to an adopted baby. I knew I would grow to love her, but I didn't know about that instant love like with children you birth. But, the moment I had Brinley in my arms, I was head over heels in love!!! This is my baby, my daughter! I couldn't stop loving on her and kissing her (yes, before her real bath!). I held her for a bit longer then gave her to Deanna. I went and told Sam he could come in the room now ( I had already told him she was a girl). As soon as he walked in Deanna handed Brinley over to him. This woman is incredible!
The rest of the night was calling people, trying to text pictures and what not. We were able to stay in a room with Brinley and do everything for her. And yes, she slept in bed with me.
The name Marissa comes from Deanna. She really likes that name and we told her we would be happy to include it for her. We think it will be really special to tell Brinley that name came from her Birth Mom.
I have to say we could not have asked for a better situation. PLAN and AIM have both been wonderful and very supportave to us. The hospital is great to us, trying to find some place for us to stay with the baby. And most of all, Deanna is so wonderful. We truly love her and feel like she is a part of our family. I wish you could all meet her. She is so selfless and is always thinking of Brinley and us. I don't know how I can ever thank this wonderful kind woman who has given our family the greatest gift of all. She will always be in our thoughts and prayers. We are so lucky to have been able to spend as much time with her as we have. We will have stories to tell Brinley when she gets older. This woman loved her so much that she thought only of her and found a family who could provide for her what she herself could not. Deanna, we love you!
Ok, Miss Briley is starting to wake, so I better go feed her. More pictures to come as soon as I can.
Thanks for all your love and support.
I received a call today at 8:55 am from PLAN (our adoption agency). We have been chosen by a Birth Mom (BM) to parent her baby!!! BM is being induced tomorrow am. We fly out to TX tomorrow. We should get there relatively soon after the baby is born. We had a chance to talk to the BM today, she seems really nice and anxious to adopt her baby out. They think the baby is a girl but are not entirely sure. At this point both Sam & I are ok with getting a boy, as long as the baby is healthy. I will update this as much as possible and post pictures as soon as I can. What do you think of the name Isaiah for a boy??
TTFN!
