Levi Vaughn

We met our baby boy today! Things are not what we expected, but don't be alarmed. He is in the NICU, which is not uncommon for babies born of mothers with gestational diabetes (which his mom had). His blood sugar is pretty messed up, and being born three weeks early has his breathing slightly less consistent than they want to see. When we first met him, he was breathing with just a little room air on a nasal cannula.

In the hours spent with him, he has already come off the nasal cannula and his blood sugar has already improved drastically. Unfortunately, because they have to take so much blood for blood sugar testing, there is a line going into his umbilical chord and they won't let us hold him until that comes out. But we've been giving him lots of smooches and holding his hand and making sure he knows we're here with him.

The doctor we spoke with this morning told us it's possible he'll have to be in the NICU for a couple of weeks. Once his blood sugar works itself out and his breathing slows, we'll be able to start to bottle feed him. This can sometimes be a challenge, but we've been helping him suck a pacifier and he seems pretty excited about that. Levi and I talked and we've agreed that he'll improve quickly and we'll take him out of the NICU by Friday :) It is possible that he'll have to be there only days if he improves quickly, so please please pray that he does so we can get him out of there.

It was a little disheartening at first, seeing him there. But it's all so familiar - the sounds, the smells - we've been here before. But praise Jesus, it's such a different story. We feel peace and joy and thankfulness and we love him so much already. Please keep him in your prayers! We will update as we can, but we're spending as much time as possible with him so that he knows who we are.

Here he is. Our sweet Levi Vaughn.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOKLAHOMA!

For those who haven't heard, we're in Oklahoma and mere HOURS away from meeting our new little man! The plan is to meet the social worker at the hospital tomorrow at 9:30 (central time) and then we'll meet the birth mother, her mother and our SON!

He was born early this morning, weighing 9.6lbs. We've been told multiple times by the social worker that he is beautiful and "vocal." This, I think, means we are in for it :)

We'll post pictures as soon as we get them. Thank you everyone for your love and encouragement and general elation and prayers for safety. We are overwhelmed and blessed by each of you and can't wait to get him home to meet you all!

Lydia's Birthday

Lydia's second birthday would have been a week and two days ago. We decided this year to have a party. The hope of the party was to do two things. First, we wanted (as my friend Megan said) to put Lydia on everyone's front page. We wanted her thought of and her name spoken with thankfulness on the day she was born. We thought, how better to do that than by gathering all the people who loved her and who have loved us together?

The second thing was that we wanted to say thank you to the people who walked through her life with us and who have walked through the difficult time of her death and our grief. It was a beautiful night. It doesn't take away the pain of her not being here, but it made us feel so blessed and thankful for her life and for the people God has caused to surround and support us.

Here are some pictures.

After Lydia died, I found a quilt online that was made from a child's clothes. This child was still living and the quilt meant to be a keepsake for him as he grew older. When I saw it, I knew I wanted one out of Lydia's clothes. These aren't the very special things she wore, but they are things she wore often that we loved to see her in. My amazingly talented mother in law made it for us and it's perfect. It's on our couch, ready to snuggle up under on cold nights.

The amazing Megan came for the weekend (and brought her wonderful baby girl) and helped make decorations and provided all around emotional support.

These are the centerpieces she made. Branches and paper flower with beautiful tea lights. They were lovely and sweet and perfect.

I grabbed this old window out of the barn in Maine. I strung pictures of our girl and Micah hung it from the tree. I love how it turned out.

Sugar cookies were favors. I had an elaborate plan to decorate in detail, but when it came down to it, I just did an "L."

No picture could capture the loveliness of our backyard that night. Micah put a spotlight in the maple tree (which we are now calling "The Party Tree") and my brother-in-law Josiah hung lamps purchased from IKEA all through the tree. It was magical.

We gathered rocks from around the yard, grabbed some paint and brushes and put them out on the table. We asked our friends to paint them with whatever they wanted and we are planning to build a planter in the yard designated Lydia's Garden. We'll plant tulips and these rocks will be used to decorate.

Thank you to all of our dear friends for loving us and celebrating our girl, to our families for helping us prepare and execute this whole she-bang, to Megan for being around and helping with everything (despite freakish fever sickness) and Amber for taking photos!

Adoption Post-Phone Call Update

Aside from slight technical difficulties, it went really well.

She looked through several profile books and apparently as soon as she saw ours there was an instant connection. The birth mother could still change her mind, but we were assured that once the baby is born, he'll be ours and they won't ask for him back. If, once we know she's in labor, we can make it down to Oklahoma in time, she said it would be fine with her if I was in the room when the baby is born.

She said that her other boys were born early, so we should be expecting that she'll have the baby in the next TWO OR THREE WEEKS.

We got more details but my head is spinning and my hands won't stop shaking. Please don't stop praying.

Pray for:
1. Continued health for E (our birth mother) and that sweet little baby boy.
2. For E's heart as she moves forward, that her heart would be protected and full of peace.
2. Protection of our hearts, should she decide to keep him.
3. Finances - pray that the money we need would become available quickly so we can be prepared with it all when we arrive in Oklahoma.
4. Faith - we want to remember all of the times God has provided for us in the past and know that He will do that again.

I asked our social worker if it was OK now to be more excited and she said (knowing that nothing is final until it's final) YES BE EXCITED!

I need to go shopping now!

Adoption Update!

Well, we got a call.

There's a woman in Oklahoma who is due September 21, is having a little boy and wants us to adopt him!

We were told we're allowed to get our hopes up and be excited but we're to be cautious too because she can still change her mind.

There are many details that need to get worked out but we are amazed and thankful and over the moon. We'll hopefully be speaking with her in the next couple of days.

Thank you so much for your prayers of support. Please pray that the logistics of travel and timing will work out, that the money we need will be provided and that grace and peace will be with us and with the mother of our Maybe (BUT REALLY HE MIGHT ACTUALLY BE OURS!!!!!) Baby Boy :)