It's a Girl! The story of the day we met our daughter.

On Wednesday, April 3, I was working out at home when my cell phone rang. It was the director of our adoption agency! Just two weeks earlier, I had called to check in with her, and she said that they didn't have any news for our family, so I really wasn't expecting "the call". She told me to sit down and to grab a pen and paper to take some notes about a situation she wanted to tell me about. I knew enough from running in adoption circles to know that a "situation" means "a baby that could possibly be a good match for you".

She started to tell me about a little baby who had been born a couple weeks earlier, five weeks premature at just 2 pounds 8 ounces. Apart from being very small, the baby was doing well and seemed to have a very good outlook. They were looking for a family who could commit to coming for daily visits to the hospital to spend time with the baby in the NICU until she would be released. Brian and I talked about it and agreed that we were interested in learning more about this baby girl. Our agency social worker made an appointment for us on Friday, April 5, to meet with a hospital social worker and a hospital doctor who had been caring for this baby. We arrived on Friday at the hospital, and the agency social worker took us right up to the NICU, introduced us to the hospital social worker, and we went right into the NICU to meet the baby. There she was, laying in her isolette, the tiniest baby I had ever seen. I was so nervous to hold her, but before I knew it, she was in my arms.

Then Brian held her.

Soon, a doctor came and talked to us and basically confirmed for us the story that our agency had told us. She was a healthy baby girl who just needed to gain weight. He said that she was in the "feed and gain" stage of her NICU stay. Basically, she just needed to get her weight up to be released from the hospital. He guessed she would be there another two weeks.

And then...we said "YES! We want to be her parents!"

We spent the next couple of hours holding her and quickly falling in love with her and calling our family members on Skype to introduce them to this sweet girl. Jeremy, who has been talking about her and praying for her for months saw her on the video chat, put his hand over his mouth and started jumping up and down with glee. Afterward, my mom said he prayed out loud, "God, thank You that we have our very own baby now!" Precious!

So happy that the nurse took out her feeding tube!

We finally kissed her goodbye, and went home to show pictures to the boys and my mom. Later, my mom went back to the hospital with me to meet her newest grandchild. It was awesome!

Three generations of ladies!

 We have given her the name Zoe Eliana. Zoe means "life". Eliana means "my God has answered".

We are so thankful that God has answered our prayers in such a beautiful way! We love this baby girl and we're so blessed to be her parents!