I have a baby girl home with me, asleep on my lap!!! She's just 6 days old, and we hope to adopt her.

I was cutting my husband's hair Friday night (the 24th) at about 7:00, and our case worker called. She said that a woman had given birth to a baby girl in the hospital that morning at around 9 o'clock. The birth mom called the agency after she gave birth and wanted the agency to choose a family to adopt her baby. We were chosen because we had been waiting the longest (24 months).

We were told that the baby would be discharged from the hospital the following day (Saturday) and we had to decide if we wanted to take her home right away or put her into interim care. The baby girl was 5lb., 3oz., and healthy, but that's all our case worker knew (We later found out that she was 5lb., 13 oz.). The birth mother seemed very committed to her decision, and had the support of her family.

My husband and I spoke for a few minutes and decided to go ahead and take her home as soon as possible, knowing that there is a risk that the birth mother could change her mind about the adoption. In our state and the county involved it will take 5-8 weeks before the birth mother goes to court to terminate her parental rights. Very little is known about the birth father, so I don't think they will even be able to locate him. His rights will automatically be terminated.

Friday night was crazy. My husband was cleaning the house, and I was digging around the basement for all our baby things. We hardly slept that night. We were excited and nervous about it all. We didn't have a name picked out either, so I wrote down some ideas, and the next day my husband told me his favorite. It was my favorite too, so that made things easy.

Saturday morning we went to get fingerprinted to update our home study. I had scheduled them on Thursday, and we were told to go ahead and do them since the baby probably wouldn't be discharged until the afternoon. Our agency was near the fingerprinting place, so we stopped there on the way to get milk at the grocery store. At the agency we saw the birth parent counselor. She was about to leave to go to the hospital, to take pictures and would call us later from the hospital.

Later in the afternoon we got the call that they wanted to keep the baby longer at the hospital since the birth mother had not had prenatal care and they wanted to make sure tests came out okay. The birth mother had signed paperwork for the court to begin the termination of her parental rights and put the baby into our temporary custody. She gave us permission to visit the baby at the hospital. We gathered a few things and headed to the hospital with our 3 year old daughter. The birth mother was about to be discharged, and they wanted us to come after she left.

We met the baby at about 2:30 Saturday afternoon. She had lots of dark hair and dark eyes. I was thrilled, because she was exactly what I had in mind. After having a blue-eyed blonde-haired child, I imagined my next one to have dark hair and eyes. She has fair skin, so the dark features really stand out. My 3 year old was thrilled as she had been wanting a baby sister. She is very skinny, not so much in the face, but in her limbs. She was 19 1/4 inches long at birth.

We visited with the baby for a few hours, and she was a very good baby for us. We could have stayed overnight, but opted to get some sleep and return Sunday morning and stay until she was discharged. Then we would take her home straight from the hospital

My three year old enjoyed visiting with her new sister and kept saying 'She's pretty' 'May I hold her, please?' 'Can I see her feet?'

It appears that the birth mother is very committed to this adoption, and we pray that everything continues to go smoothly and that the new baby remains healthy.

I'll be back later to add another entry. If you want to know her name, just look at the new ticker I've made below. Thanks to all of you who have kept me in prayer. Please continue to do so.