It's a....

GIRL!!!!!!

We are thrilled to finally announce that we have matched with a birthmom!!!  And we are expecting the sweet little girl July 20th!!!

We were contacted by S on Wednesday, May 30, via email and we instantly fell in love with her.  We had the wonderful gut feeling that we have been waiting for.  Within a few hours, we spoke on the phone with her and her mother.  Shelley and I looked at each other and we knew that this was our birthmom.  We planned to meet the following Saturday.

The next few days were pure excitement and we fell in love with her even more.  We exchanged emails and had positive feedback from our adoption counselor(s).  S is 17 years old and lives less than 2 hours away.  When we initially talked to S, she was only about 7 weeks away from due date.  Needless to say, we felt anxiety about that, but so happy at the same time.  We counted down every day to the Saturday we would see her face to face.

After 10 days of waiting, we drove to a mutual town and had lunch together.  We met her parents and little sister.  Hugs were given immediately with ease and we all fell into conversation quickly.  We talked more about ourselves and answered any questions they had.  We discussed our hopes with the open adoption.  We laughed at how similar our families are.  S said over and over how much she loves us and is very excited about being a short drive away.  It was a surprisingly relaxed lunch.  We drove home with permanent smiles.  We were unofficially expecting a little girl in less than 6 weeks. (We don't think, as well as her doctor, that she will make it to exactly 40 wks).

This past Sunday was the longest day for both of us.  We were bursting at the seams to tell our family and friends, but we wanted the match to be official.  Monday morning, we received an email from S's counselor stating she wanted to match.  SML called back right away (I was sleeping in between shifts).  WE MATCHED!!!!  The final details still need to be planned out in a match meeting, that will happen soon.  Nothing is final until after the birth, but....we feel 99% sure that we will have our baby girl in a month!

Tuesday evening, we had our family over for a "mandatory meeting" and revealed our secret.  Everyone had a pretty good idea why they were coming over, they just didn't know the details.  We shocked everyone with the soon due date and surprised them with the sex of the baby and how close birthmom is to us.  Our home was filled with excitement, love, laughter, and hugs! 

Until ~July 20th, we are using our free time preparing for baby and for get-togethers with S.  We are very excited and can't wait to grow our family by one! xoxo