Atkinson Family Addition

After we spent as many hours as possible with baby girl, we arrived at the hospital on that final day. It was final because at 10am, her mama would be meeting with her Social Worker and attorney to make her decision to parent or place baby through adoption. After spending those two days together, we know M loves baby girl and would be a great parent to her if that were her choice. Our emotions were beyond intense. No matter the decision, we knew that our hearts would be hurting. No matter the decision, this baby girl was loved and would continue to be loved. No matter the decision, we had poured out every ounce of our hearts for the last 72 hours and wouldn’t regret that time. We were quiet, because no matter the decision, what comes next wouldn’t be easy. And then it was 11, and the social worker hadn’t arrived yet. And then it was 11:30, and the social worker still hadn’t arrived. My stomach was such a mess I had to take a walk to get ice and splash cool water on my face. I ...

This is it. The moment we’ve been waiting for. We were in M’s maternity room and the nurses wheeled in a tiny little babe that was just about to have her first bottle. They showed us where the necessities were, handed me the bottle, and left the room. And then it was us. I scooped up that tiny little squish and held her close to my chest. Travis and I stared at each other in complete and utter disbelief. This was happening. This was our reality. In this moment. We stared at baby, completely and utterly smitten. We spent the rest of the day in the room with M and baby girl. We talked. We laughed. She rested and slept. We stared at baby and never set her down. Travis fed baby girl a bottle and instantly got her to burp. He confidently responded with “I just have the touch!”. To which, I replied with “I will remember that at 3am…”. M laughed and she reminded Trav that we thought he “has the touch” any time baby girl fussed. When we noticed baby girl’s extremely long finge...

Now that our profiles have been distributed to agencies throughout the nation, reality is a knocking! Remember all those feelings and worries when we were creating those profile books? Where we hoped to share our love for each other, for our families, friends and church, and for our future child all in the pages of that book? When I hoped and prayed that our personalities, souls, and love would seep into the pages of those books that will bring us our future child? Yeah, all those feelings have exploded. Now I can’t help but think about all the “what ifs”. What if they’re looking for a home that’s bigger than our little, old duplex? Or a doctor instead of a teacher? Or what if they’re looking for parents that have been married longer than we have? Or a family that has a cat instead of a dog? Or the million other thoughts circling my mind. But what if our little, old duplex; new-ishly married; dog-loving family is the absolute perfect fit for a baby that’s growing inside their mama?...

If you have spent some time with Travis and I, you have probably heard us talk about our church--we love it, we can’t help it. Recently, we joined in relationship and prayer with our partner congregation to match with another family/couple/individual to be prayer partners. We somehow managed to be paired with a fellow adoption journeying mama! She lives in our neighborhood and has recently begun the process of searching for agencies and programs and we are so grateful to have made another connection on our journey--especially one that includes daily prayers for each other! We’re excited to continue our journey with our new-found connection beyond the 5 weeks of prayer as we support her in her journey as well. We pray that she find clarity amidst the heaps of information when choosing an agency/program; that she find peace in her decision to choose adoption; and that she feels supported and encouraged by the people in her life as she embarks on this new journey. We have also begun t...