Guess Who Is Two Weeks Old

Well, Olivia is two weeks old (this past Friday). She had her first pedi appointment last Monday and had gained 1/2 pound and grew 1 and 1/2 inches! She is eating well, sleeping well, and waking up every three hours. We all seem to be adjusting well, but Mommy and Daddy are still getting used to sleeping in short naps. Olivia has her two week appointment tomorrow and we will see how much she has grown this week! How exciting?!

We are still maintaining communication with our birth mother. It has been a little strange as we all adjust to our new roles. She has just returned to her home with her son after two weeks way out in the country with her mother and family. When we last spoke she was anxious to get back to work as it keeps her busy and out of trouble. She has called Mom to get a chair we promised her--a result of downsizing from one of Mom's friends. She did have some rough moments last week and seemed very sad when we spoke. We are supposed to call her tomorrow after Olivia's next doctor visit. We sincerely hope she is doing better!

I believe that we naively thought it would be easier than it is to keep in contact with our birth mother. We get along so well that it seemed we would just continue this friendly relationship. What we did not account for is how difficult it would be for her to adjust and grieve, and how fiercely we would grow to love Olivia. There is still an air of danger as we wait out the 60 days it will take for the parental rights to be terminated. While the birth mother's decision to place her child for adoption is irrevocable no parental rights are terminated until 60 days have passed without locating the birth father--at that point both rights will be terminated in court. If we are to believe our birth mother, the birth father is unknown (except for a nick name) and is believed to live out of state. She wasn't even really sure of his race--possibly African American and Hispanic, or Puerto Rican. The birth father has thirty days after the birth of the child to register with the birth father registry stating he believes he has fathered a child, then the state has thirty days to conclude paternity. On October 2, we will all breathe a sigh of relief when those first court papers are filed.

Some time in the next two weeks we will have a home study visit--our first supervised visit from the Methodist Mission Home. We have to file a monthly report for six months with pictures, documenting the health and progress of Olivia. These are shared with the birth mother. During these first six months we will also be sharing photos and phone calls with our birth mother. We hope that after this time we will be able to have some space so that we can all really begin to heal and grow into our new lives.

Right now we live joyously in the moment. We love our new little daughter and are constantly amazed at how she grows, responds, and seems to love us in return. This is definitely the hardest thing either of us have ever done, but it also the most rewarding. We are so blessed!
Granny came to visit for a few days last week. We breathed a sigh of relief as tropical storm Erin missed the coast. Now we are praying for a reprieve from Hurricane Dean. If it seems as if he might still hit us we will be going up to San Antonio until the danger has passed. We don't want to be caught here with the possibility of storm damage, flooding, and/or loss of electricity. We already lived through a boil water advisory last week after ecoli was found in local city water, likely a result of an over burdened system and all of the flooding we have had already this Summer. Please say a prayer for us as we make decisions and preparations for dealing with Hurricane Dean.