Evan came into the world at 1:58pm this afternoon. We had quite a journey getting there though!

First of all, he wasn’t really ever supposed to be here in the first place. Ten years ago, we stood in front of a screen while our doctor completed a test to see if we could have more children. After having tubal pregnancies both before and after Hannah, the doctor told us that it wouldn’t be possible. After adopting both Ellie and Julia, we found out that Evan was determined to defy the odds!

Last night, we came to the hospital to be induced. We started at about 10pm having some initial preparation medications and then this morning they started the Oxytocin to begin the contractions. A couple of hours later, they broke the water and then shortly after gave Gina the epidural. After that, they started an exam, so I walked out to go talk to the grandparents who were down in the waiting room. Suddenly, nurse Amy, who was doing the exam, appeared around the corner into the waiting room and started waving me back to the room. On the way back to the room, she told me, “Gina is 7 cm and I just shook hands with the baby!” I thought she meant that things were just moving quicker than expected, but she meant it pretty literally. Turns out that he had pushed his hand and part of his arm out and as the nurse was doing the examination, he grabbed her finger!

The lead nurse tried to push the hand back in a little bit, but he wasn’t having any of it. He actually pushed it out even further, so they called Dr. Franco to come and check it out. He decided that they needed to do a C-section right away, so they put the surgical stuff on us and out the door we went! The C-section happened within the next twenty minutes and we were seeing Evan. Awesome!

Here are a few pictures from our day today:

I awoke very early this morning after having dreamed of Treasure.  I could have sworn “*he” was in bed sleeping between Ryan and me.  Our new fuzzy headed, diapered-bottom, blankie-grasping, footy-pajamaed, softly snoring little treasure.

That would really be something because we’ve never been a c0-sleeping sort of family.

*I’m not saying that I care if Treasure is a he or a she, I just don’t like to use “it” to describe a person.

Have a meeting, hurry to turn in paperwork, wait for some bureacracy to get something back to you that you need to hurry up and get turned it and then wait for the next step.  So were back to the paperwork “hurry up and wait”, but at least we are still in line in Ethiopia and hoping that the timeline will work out to have everything complete before we get to referral time.

Oh, and we need to go get fingerprinted again – in case we have committed a crime in the 30 days we have lived in Colorado!  I have been fingerprinted so many times you might begin to wonder…

On another note…I kept daydreaming the other day about taking a blue balloon to Ryan’s office and suprising him with the referral comes.  Not sure how we will find out and share the news…but that balloon was definitely blue!

We have gotten the ball rolling in having our immigration paperwork transferred to Denver and updating our homestudy.  Seems that Colorado homestudy requirements are quite a bit more stringent than other states, so I am still trying to understand what we need to do.  I want to be sure there are no lapses in paperwork and everything is tied up nicely. – the last thing we would want is to have something missing when it comes time to welcome Treasure into our family.

Hannah wanted to carry a hungry, fussy Ellie the other day at a store.  She said, “I should practice carrying around little one’s because I will be carrying Treasure.”   She said that out of the blue, so it was heartening to me that having a new sibling is on her mind as well.

But the thing is, Ellie isn’t such a little one.  This is the time of year I am glad that the season is changing because long pants are getting too short to wear much longer.  She was as pleased as punch the other night when her blue jeans were obviously too small and I told her we were going to put them away for Treasure.  If Treasure is a girl, we will be set…If Treasure is a boy, I am going to have tubs of tubs of girls’ clothes to take to Goodwill.

Now that we are feeling pretty settled, I have begun to think of how I will decorate the 4th bedroom as the Nursery.  I guess those referrals really got me going…

Two one-month old infants – a boy and a girl, and a 5 year old girl will soon make the huge transition to their new families who have been eagerly waiting.

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Hannah was the prankster yesterday – setting the dinner table with plastic kiddie plates and cups for the whole family.  She switched around the bags of cereal so Mommy would get Cheerios instead of Honey Bunches of Oats…

Her face beamed as she was waiting for the prank to play itself out.  What a cutie!

“You’ll need to take care of this soon, as you could be receiving a referral in the next few months.”

…and it just made me smile…

I told Ryan the other day that, gee, I like the baby-stage, but I LOVE the more independent, verbal pre-school stage.  I said I am enjoying her so much right now that it might be a bit difficult to adjust again to the baby stage.

Well, we were in church today and in walked a family who has a couple of birth children as well as a little girl from China that they adopted at about 15 months.  I think she is 5 or so now.  The mom had a Chinese baby boy in her Ergo as they came in and sat in front of us!

My eyes were glued.  While it is not unusual to see a family with a Chinese child, it is unusual to see a Chinese child so young in these parts.  I was flooded with the memories of having my sweet Ellie in her carrier in church.  I remember the feeling of holding her close to me in the carrier, worshiping with her finally in my arms.   I thought back to the bonding process with hindsight now and couldn’t wait to feel Treasure in the carrier – in my arms.

I believe this is going to be a peaceful child.  I feel so much peace when I think of Treasure.  Anyone who knows – and loves – Ellie knows she has been “arduous” at times,  just like her wait (that has been so much better since she turned 3!).  Even though I had such an emotional reaction today when I saw this new little guy, I don’t feel impatient.  I just feel confident…Treasure is meant to be part of our family and Treasure will come to us in God’s perfect time.

It was obvious to me that there wasn’t really a baby coming, but that something was happening.

Maybe something is up in Ethiopia with Treasure…

Like I’ve said before, there were often moments like this in our wait for Ellie and the time line later had significance in her story.  Just thought I would record this dream here for comparison purposes later.

Several Bethany families received referrals yesterday.  One is an infant and there are a couple of young sibling groups who will be coming home in early 2009.  Several other families will have their court date on December 24.  The Bethany representative will go to court to represent the adoptive parents for this huge milestone in the adoptive process.  Basically, the court approval is the green light and things will move rather quickly to that last step in traveling to Ethiopia for finalization.

We are still peacefully waiting for our next child and and praying for the situation in Ethiopia and all those very precious souls so devastatingly effected by AIDS, poverty, hunger, disease.

But, I am beginning to believe Ryan really, really needs a boy. It seems time and again Daddy is outnumbered and a bit overwhelmed with all the trappings that girls bring.

He loves his girls – wouldn’t trade them for the world – but he is beginning to make his wishes known that, gee, it is time for a boy.

(The prologue to this post: Dancing with the Stars has been on – in HD, on our new widescreen – two nights in a row.  There was a small tussle for the remote and talk about NCIS, but alas majority won.)