Well sometimes God's plans are different than ours. The end of July I was working at school getting my room ready when I got a text from my brother in laws girl friend that said call me. I kinda panicked as she never asked me to call her. When she answered one of her first comments was "So do you and Jimmy want another baby". Yeah at some point. "I know someone. Here are the details. Are you interested?" We took a few days to discuss it and were extremely skeptical because we had several calls like this when we were waiting the first time. Ultimately, like most of our decisions, we decided to pursue and see what happened, knowing God would either open or shut the door. We sent our profile book from AG so they could decide for sure and waited. August 3., we received a phone call that said if you are interested get your lawyer. So we started calling around and checking into lawyers and seeing if the guy who did AG's finalization would do a private adoption. We started updating our home study and I started prepping for a sub. We had time to plan though. The sweet little boy wasn't due until October 30.
This was so different than AG. We had to wait three months. We got updates on how the baby was and even a sonogram picture. It was completely different and in ways scarier than the first time, not having the middle person there to protect us. Waiting on calls to find out if everything was still going, it was definitely difficult.
Well fast forward to September 14. I had been waiting two weeks for an update and was getting antsy. (Once again we had never had a situation like this proceed this far.) I finally gave in and called and found out she's gone to the dr that day and everything still looked like an October 30 due date. I decided to make a blanket since I had time so on the 18th on the way home, I stopped by Michaels to get yarn. And once again, God had different plans. As I was loading AG in the car Jimmy called and said Amy called she wants to know if we want the due date to be Sept 18. What? "Ashley the baby is here. Emergency C section"
Well not wanting to delve into their personal business lets suffice it to say there was a medical emergency that made a c-section necessary. It was a scary night for everyone. I rushed home, we threw stuff together for AG together and flew to the hospital. She went to stay with Jimmy's brother and his girlfriend for the night while we started figuring out what was next. And we started making phone calls. Because of the long wait we had not told a lot of people. Suffice it to say I shocked the heck out of some family that day. They didn't know I could keep secrets like that!
Finally we got to go to NICU to meet our sweet Ethan James. He was six weeks early and only weighed 4.5 lbs and was 18 inches. He was on a ventilator but stable. We were told to prepare for a possible six week stay. We made a late night preemie run at Walmart and tried to absorb the day. The next morning we went back to NICU to find out they had removed the intubation tube at 11. He was progressing well. It was a long day of sitting and waiting. We talked to doctors about his prognosis, waited for news on his Birthmother, and talked to the hospital social worker. It was basically a sit and wait until Monday when notaries would be in and we could get consents for us to go to NICU signed and inform our lawyer he was here and get a rush on that paperwork!
At some point, I'll probably blog the NICU stay. We were there for a week and 4 day but considering they thought we'd have been there a minimum of 2 weeks leaving on Tuesday just a mere 10 days or so later wasn't bad. I will say NICU nurses are awesome.
Jimmy and I picked his name before AG came. It was our boy pick. James is not only Jimmy's legal name but also the name of my beloved grandfather. Jimmy is named after a uncle and I have a great uncle named James. So though I'm not a big family name person this one I had to stick with. Also, if you take our initials and mix them together to make a name you get James. So that's extra cool. Ethan just happened to be a name we liked paired with James that we could agree on. As we sat in NICU talking to one of the nurses that week discussing how he was fighting and progressing well and faster than expected they asked his name and as we discussed it, it hit me his name means strong, solid, enduring. And I've seen it as fighter. I looked it up to check my memory and was just amazed. Without thinking of the meaning, just remembering that we liked it, we named our son with a name that means strong and here he was fighting and improving. It was a God moment.
We got to finally touch him and start caring for him the following Monday when consents were signed for us to be in NICU, then on Wednesday I finally got to hold him. We had been told not until the line was out but they let me do it early. I'm forever grateful. Jimmy and I were splitting NICU time and being with AG so unfortunately we weren't together.
We are home we are happy and we are in love. AG has adjusted well and loves to hug, kiss, and love on her baby brother. She is such a big helper. Ethan is growing like a weed and is progressing well. Here are a few pics that we can finally share.
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Finally going home!
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