the longest blog post ever--

A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE

Here we were at our Christmas Program when in another part of the country our baby boy was being born! We had no idea that the Lord had big plans for our family!

I answered the phone Monday morning to hear my social worker say "well, we have had some significant developments...a baby boy was born last night." My heart began to pound as I said, "ok"...she went on to give me a bit of information and left it that she would be calling me back after she heard from the other caseworker. I quickly called Matt and he said, "WHAT!?!? Are you serious!?!?! OK...Let's Go!!!" He then went on to tell me that he wasn't going to be able to leave work. The mama in me initially wanted to get mad at this declaration, but I decided to give this detail to the Lord. I figured if He wanted us on a plane He would cover the details of Matt being able to leave work. We called our family and spent the rest of the day wandering around wondering what was about to happen. I was trying so hard to keep my heart protected. We just kept praying for the Lord's will to be done that day! The girls didn't know any of this was going on all day long. They were just excited because I told them that if we got the house clean we could open one present each that night! (Bribery is a good thing at times, dear friends!) They held up their end of the bargain and we opened the one gift. However we hadn't heard back from our social worker so Matt and I sat there wondering if we should just put them to bed. As the night lingered on we began to think that this adoption wasn't going to happen. We knew the social worker was meeting the birth parents at the hospital at 6:30 to sign the paperwork. We thought that would probably take an hour or maybe two. Finally at 9:30 our social worker called...and said, "Congratulations, Mama, you have a BOY!" I screamed...Matt came over and gave me a huge hug. The two of us were cheek to cheek trying to listen to her tell us all of the details. We hung up with her called our families, then went and opened all of the Christmas gifts with the girls. At the end of it Matt told them we had one more surprise. Our 9 yo dd said with glee, "Are we getting our baby?" We told them the details and the girls and I started crying! We prayed together, tucked them in...and Matt and I started flying around the house. We were up until about 2am.

Bright and early the next morning...we dropped the girls off at my parents and headed to the airport. All day long my sister was working on calculating the donations that were coming in. We would call in between flights and she would give us an update of where we were and what we were going to need. She also found us an amazing suite for super cheap and a great rental car. The Lord provided in AMAZING ways. I can't tell you how humbling it was to see so many of you donate to our adoption. We thank God for you and pray that you will be blessed for your obedience!
First time I held Hudson in my arms! We received clearance from the hospital to come see him that night after we landed. We were there for about an hour and then went to find our amazing hotel.

First time Daddy holds his son!






Before we showed up at the hospital to get Hudson discharged, we made a frantic stop to Kmart to grab diapers, bottles, and blankets.

Oh how I love these two...they melt my heart!

This is when it became official as we were leaving the hospital!

Hudson's first Dr. appt. He hates being cold!

Matt and I figured that if we were in FL, we needed to take him to the beach! It was a cloudy day, but we had fun. We needed to get out of our hotel room so a little road trip to the beach was great!

The most amazing thing happened as we were taking these pictures...a group of dolphins came right up near the shore and were swimming around. Matt and I were pretty awed by how cool of an experience that was.

Aren't they the cutest??!?!?!!

Here we are with our most amazing Christmas gift!

We had just arrived at Courtney's when there was a knock at the door...my sister sent these beautiful flowers to welcome Hudson. (yes...it made me cry) :)

I am married to the most amazing man. He called me earlier in the day on Christmas day to tell me to keep my phone on me that night. He called me and said, "Mommy, we are keeping our family tradition of driving around looking at Christmas lights and listening to Christmas music...and tonight we are taking Hudson and you with us!" I was choking back the tears...I put Christmas music on in my room and listened as the girls describe the lights on houses. I have never loved to hear such rambling as I did that night! :) I held it together while talking to them, but when I hung up I started sobbing again. I missed them so incredibly much!

We were on our way to the beach when my social worker called to tell me that we got the "all clear" to leave FL with our baby boy! Here I am calling the girls to tell them...they all screamed and squealed on the other end of the phone! We spent the next hour searching for seashells for the girls...Court's kids did an awesome job helping me find shells for the girls.

While starring at the beauty of His creation, I was so overwhelmed with praise to God for the way He performed these miracles in our lives. It was a very special memory!

(you've seen all of the coming home pics) This was early the next morning...the girls were so mesmerized with their new little brother. They came in and just starred at him while he slept. Then they started begging me if they could hold him. They still can't get enough of him!

Well...there you have a glimpse of our beginning with Hudson! I still hold him in my arms and become completely overwhelmed with the miracle that he is. Everyday I am praising the Lord for what He taught us while we waited for Hudson and for how He provided. We are so humbled for the journey and for the end result of holding this beautiful baby boy in our arms forever!