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<\/a> <\/p>\nThis story starts about a good 8 years ago really, on a flight home from Texas. At the time I had a 3 year old and was bouncing a little (big) one year old on my lap. Seated in front of me on the plane was a young Hispanic mom with two of the cutest little girls that I have ever seen.<\/p>\n
I looked at those girls, and it hit me all at once. Some day I was going to adopt a little Hispanic girl. I just knew it.<\/p>\n
Fast forward 4 years, I have another baby. This baby threw us for a loop, a little wilder than the other two, a little crazier. My thoughts of adopting were shoved to the back of my head while I adjusted to being a mom of three boys.<\/p>\n
But it was always there, always in the back of my head. And when Cole turned 4, I started looking into it.<\/p>\n
Because I was convinced that an Hispanic daughter was in my future, I started looking seriously into Guatemala. I found an agency, gathered information, scheduled an international homestudy. Of course never to do things the easy way, we started the process right smack dab in the middle of our total house remodel\/addition. Our homestudy was done with the whole back of our house missing, with us living out of one room.<\/p>\n
One of the things I love about adoption, is that once you mention it- people come out of the woodwork to talk about it. I had a lot of chats with my contractor about adoption during our remodel. At one point he said, “aren’t there a lot of Hispanic kids here in the US that need homes?” <\/p>\n
As we got further into the process and our home became more destroyed, we made the decision to wait until we finished the house. But by the time we finished, Guatemala adoption was becoming risky at best and within a month was closed down.<\/p>\n
We were back at square one. I started looking at other countries, since we had an international homestudy. But every time I would bring it up to Andy, he would remind me that my “dream” was for an Hispanic daughter. So I started to look into domestic. It required us to start all over with the homestudy and document gathering. In some ways it was easier than the international process and in some ways it was harder. <\/p>\n
It is hard keeping such a big secret. The boys leaked information here and there, I knew there were lots of whispers over at the school. <\/p>\n
Andy and I have been enjoying seeing peoples reaction to the idea of us adopting. People that we thought would never get it, surprised us by being soooooo excited about the news. People that we thought would be totally on board, disappointed us. We get a kick out of the people that tell us that we are crazy. Of course we are, I thought that was already well established. <\/p>\n
You just never know the reason behind a reaction. But for the most part we have found that the subject of adoption brings out the best in people. I have had a couple of friends that teared up the second I told them, Andy has a lot of people at work over the moon excited for us. I have had a ton of people contact me to ask questions about adoption, because it has been in their heart too. I love that!!! <\/p>\n
Soooo…. <\/p>\n
I have some big news to share. Our little baby girl was born last week, 4 weeks early, but still a decent size at 5 1\/2 pounds. She is about to be discharged from the hospital but won’t be able to come home until icpc passes. Icpc is a process that occurs between states that basically was set in motion to combat kidnapping. It is a frustrating wait, as our state has the longest average time for the process. <\/p>\n
We will be heading out to pick her up very soon. But until then, here is a sneak peak at the little munchkin<\/p>\n
Meet Eva<\/p>\n
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