Family Visits

Ryan's family all came in town this past weekend to see Layla and just catch up.  It was fantastic to see everyone and I was so glad that Layla got to meet everyone even if she was asleep the majority of the time.    Here's a couple of pics of the fam:

Layla with her cousins, Chase and Faith

Ryan and my nephew, Chase, with matching Mohawks

Grandma Sue with Eva, Layla and Chase

All the Shumpert grandkids 

Our cute little family

Heisman Pose

Faith, Layla and Samantha

Love Takes Time

I've decided to go ahead and share a couple of things that have been going through my brain since Layla's birth.  We'll go in order:

1. I was completely terrified when I first laid eyes on my sweet baby.  E's labor was incredibly long, and Ryan and I had been at the hospital for over 12 hours by the time Layla was finally born.  We spent hours playing Spades with complete strangers during the course of the day.  One moment, I was throwing down a card, and the next, I was suddenly a parent to a tiny little baby that was screaming her lungs out in the nursery.  A lot of people have told me that I would be completely overwhelmed with love for my daughter as soon as I saw her.  Instead of love, all I felt was shock and terror.  How in the world could I take care of another human being?  I was sure that I would fail miserably.  I knew how to raise a dog, but I sure as heck had no idea how to raise a child.  She was so tiny and frail looking.  Ryan held my hand and all I could think of was how unprepared I was to take on such a HUGE responsibility.  

2. My husband is the most amazing person I've ever known.  While I was too terrified of killing Layla to even chang her diaper, Ryan was busy feeding her, changing her clothes and cleaning up poop.  He took to her like he'd been a father his entire life.  He stays up late with Layla when she decides that 2 am is actually 2 pm.  Layla is seriously going to be a daddy's girl.  I'm trying my hardest to win her over to my side, but I can just tell by the way she looks at him that she's all his.

3. Love is something that grows with time.  The longer I'm around my sweet little lady, the more smitten I'm becoming.  Women that give birth to their children have an entire 9 months to nurture and care for their baby.  I didn't get to physically love my child until she was in my arms.  She was in someone else's womb. I knew she was there and that I loved the thought of her, but I never got to feel that she was physically there.  My love has had to grow.  It has certainly grown quickly, but I can say for a fact that I love my sweet girl at this moment much more than I did that first day.

First Photo Shoot

She's Here!

Meet Layla!  She finally decided to show up after a ridiculously long labor at 8:57 pm on Friday, July 22nd.  She weighed in at 7lbs 7 oz and was 19.5 inches long.  She's absolutely perfect :)

Living in the Cookoo's Nest

Today is the first day I actually feel like I may have titled my blog correctly.  Our journey to Layla, in all honesty, has been relatively easy.  Our paperwork was easy. Our homestudy went by with no hiccups.  The wait time before we recieved a referral was only around 2 months.  The 2 more months between our referral date and Layla's due date have flown by without us knowing what happened. 

Well, her due date has come and gone and I've been on pins and needles for about 5 days now.  The house is clean, the nursery is ready, and the fridge is stocked.  Everything at work is even caught up.  There are moments in the day, right in between answering yet another call from someone thinking that we'd just forgotten to tell them that she's arrived, that I honestly feel like I'm losing my mind.  I keep hoping that if I keep myself busy, or if I accidentally leave my phone in the other room for a couple of minutes, that E will go into labor.  Time is going backwards.  I actually had a dream last night that I had missed Layla's birth and she was never going to come out.  Don't laugh.....

I know there is a reason for the wait.  I know that God is just playing out some huge plan that I know nothing about.  I know that I should be enjoying these last few days that I have of freedom and irresponsibility with my husband.  I know that I need to be using this time to catch up on sleep since I won't remember what that word even means soon.  I know that this is me learning to be patient.  I also know that I've waited a very very long time to meet the daughter that God picked out for our family, and that I'm about to explode with the love that I have for her. 

On a side note: I think God was saving Ryan when he decided to not let me give birth to this child.  I'm fairly certain that I would have to be put in a psych-ward if I were to add pregnancy hormones to the mix right now.  :)

SUCCESS!

For the past 3 months I've been using my spare time to search for adoption attorneys where we live.  I seriously thought that this would be the easiest part of this whole journey.  I mean, seriously, I do work in a law firm, and my father basically knows every lawyer that has ever practiced in our state.  I was soooo wrong.  Apparently, out of the 50 trillion family lawyers in our area, there are only a couple that actually do adoptions.  Out of the 20 or so that claim to work adoption cases, there are only a handful that have actually done so, and done it well.  Until today, we were looking at around $3k or so for an attorney.  We had only budgetted around $2k for an attorney initially, so I felt like a total failure when I couldn't find anyone to do it for cheaper. 

As a last ditch effort, I called my father and asked him to call a friend of his, who just so happens to be the best adoption attorney in our state.  I'd been hesitant to even ask how much he would charge, since I knew we couldn't afford him.  I mean, really, he wrote the book that all the other adoption attorneys use as their reference.  After a quick convo with my dad, he agreed to speak with me.  I called today not expecting much and was blown away when he told me that if we paid the court costs, he'd do everything for FREE.  {insert Applause here}  Thank God for small and BIG favors. :)

Is This "Nesting"

Last week I practically jumped out of my skin every time my phone rang.  Ryan and I had been putting off cleaning the house and finishing all of our little projects, and I just KNEW that Layla was going to come before we got to everything.  Well, the phone didn't ring.  To tell you the truth, I'm glad it didn't, because I wasn't ready yet.  If you know anything about me, you know that I'm slightly OCD.  My husband is not.  I don't ever feel prepared for anything until the house is clean and everything is organized. 

Saturday rolled around, Ryan was at work all day, and I was left in my dirty (well, what I would consider dirty) house.  I went a little crazy.  I'm fairly certain that I Windexed every surface in the entire house (not joking). I think pregnant people call this "nesting," but since I'm not pregnant, I'll just go ahead and admit that I'm a lunatic.  The funny thing is, I'm absolutely calm now.  My house is clean and suddenly all is right with the world.  I know it won't stay shiny and gleaming for long, as I'm sure Maddox is shedding billions of tiny little black hairs all over the place right this moment.  But since it is clean, for now, I'd really LOVE Layla to decide to make an entrance.  :)