Our time with Zoe in the NICU...

From the day we met Zoe on April 5th until the day we brought her home on April 16th, we visited our girl in the hospital as often as we could! Thankfully, the hospital wasn't terribly far from our house, so we got to see her nearly every day.

We were told that skin-to-skin contact between parent and baby (aka kangaroo bonding) is wonderful for the child's brain development and also for the attachment and bonding process. We loved snuggling our little sweetie, feeding her bottles and getting to know her better with each visit.

During the first several days, she was still spending most of her time inside of an isolette. Although she was already capable of maintaining her own body temperature, the isolette kept her warm, so her body could focus all of its energy on gaining weight and growing.

Yawwwwwn!

Looking back, I can hardly believe how much she has grown over the past five and a half weeks since we met her!

This little chick outfit was a preemie size that I had already washed and dried in the dryer, and it was still swimming on her! She wore the same outfit yesterday, and the hat fit perfectly!

We spent lots of time marveling at how "fearfully and wonderfully made" she was...everything just in miniature! During the time that we knew her in the NICU, her weight was between 3 pounds 2 ounces (the day we met her) and 3 pounds 15 ounces (the day we took her home). A petite lil' princess!

In Daddy's hands.

The wires were monitoring heart rate and oxygen saturation.

Nana came and visited her...

And Aunt Jilly came to meet her:

And Mama couldn't get enough of her!

Jill made Zoe the banner to decorate her isolette!

And even though our baby was in the NICU, that didn't stop us from staging a photo shoot right in her room! This kind nurse even made her a headband bow out of pink tulle.

Our time with Zoe in the NICU was so precious, and we are thankful for the excellent care she received there!

Soon, the day would come when we would get to bring her home....

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!

The Boys' Room!

Part of making room for a baby is actually making a room for her! This means that at some point, my boys will be sharing a room. So what better time than the present, right?! Brian and I spent some time yesterday rearranging furniture and getting this room ready for the boys to share! I'm really happy with how it came together!

Yesterday also was the day that my "baby" boy (on the right) started sleeping in a toddler bed. Look how proud! So, there you have it...we're now the parents of two big boys! Time is flying, we look like we've aged a bit, but we are loving this journey of parenthood!

Nesting!

Last month, I posted this letter that I wrote to my mom for her 70th birthday. In it, I mentioned that Brian and I are waiting for a baby girl to join our family. A few of you wrote me privately, asking if we are adopting again. We are! I've been hesitant to mention it here, because...well, I'm not entirely sure why. I think I was just afraid of revealing the news too soon. So many "what ifs"...

But for some reason, I'm feeling emboldened to share our news a little bit more publicly now, so here goes: We are in the process of adopting a baby girl domestically!

Almost immediately after we brought our boys home from Ethiopia, I was talking about about going back to ET to adopt again. My husband was like, "Slow down there, missy! How 'bout we adjust to the gigantic hurricane that just descended upon our house?" Thankfully, he's a wise one, and he was right that we weren't ready to start the process again. However, in retrospect, if we had started the process all over again back in late 2010, we would probably only just now be bringing home another child!

Our hearts are very much still tied to Ethiopia, but for a variety of reasons, we feel like domestic adoption is a better option for our family right now. We are using a Houston-based agency.

We are hoping to adopt a newborn baby girl, African-American or biracial. We have completed all of our paperwork and our home study. And now, we are in the waiting-to-be-chosen-by-a-birthm0ther stage of the process! We are hopeful that we might be able to take placement of our daughter sometime in the next year. Thankfully, I've got my two boys to keep me busy and to distract me from the wait! I know that God's timing is perfect, and we are trusting in Him. 

Just for fun, I wanted to share some photos of the crib bedding I made for her! I'm going with a "sunflower" theme, since I love sunflowers and I want her room to be bright with a hint of whimsy!

Please join us in praying the same prayer we prayed for our two sons--that God would place the child in our family that He has in mind for us! We cannot wait to meet this precious baby girl...and to share our joy here with you, whenever God places her in our family!

I Love Shutterfly for Making Greeting Cards!

Plus, I thought this pic of my son is super adorbs!

5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

A Letter to my Mom on her 70th Birthday

Dear Mom,

Sometimes life has a way of surprising you when you least expect it. This morning, I was sitting at the sewing machine making bumper pads for our baby-to-be's crib, and I was listening to Steven Curtis Chapman on Brian's iPod. I had never really listened to this particular album before, and a song came on called "What I Would Say". The next thing I knew, I was a sobbing puddle of tears. The song is an adult son's words to his father who abandoned the family...the words he was never able to say to him. Although I could relate to his sense of father-abandonment, the lyrics that really touched and moved me were these:

I'd love to tell you how the lovely girl you married,

She's been my hero and a treasure to us all.

All I could think about was you, and how his words described exactly what you mean to me and to our family!

I really didn't mean for my birthday letter to you to have any mention of Dad or the divorce or anything like that. But I guess it was such a pivotal time in our family's life. It was the moment when you, Jill and I decided that we would not fall apart, but we would unite and become the Trimphant Trio. In truth, I don't know that it was even a decision that had to be made--it was just understood, because that is who we always were and still are...devoted, there for each other, FAMILY! And while Dad's abandonment was probably one of my life's greatest sources of pain and hurt, your ongoing presence in my life was one of the greatest sources of unconditional love and healing. You really are my hero, and absolutely a TREASURE to us all!

Thank you for being a hero to me and a treasure to our whole family. You earned such status not because you're the mother or grandmother, but because you are Mom and Nana...always there with your presence in our lives, freely giving of your love.

We are abundantly blessed!


I love you forever, my dear Mom, and I'm forever grateful to you for the legacy of love and commitment to family that you have imprinted indelibly on my heart and life.

Big birthday HUGS,
Tracy

Christmas 2012 Recap

I've gotten out of the habit of blogging a bit because of how easy it is to share photos on Facebook!

But I wanted to share a few photos from the holidays with y'all who still come by here to read.  :)  The boys were such fun ages for Christmas this year. It was so fun to experience the "magic" through their eyes!

Here is Zachary opening and trying out his new "doggy guitar" from Gramma!

And here, Jeremy is opening his remote control monster truck from Gramma. The expression on his face says it all!

On Christmas night, we went over to my mom's house for dinner. It was such a lovely family night!

 One of the sweetest gifts of this Christmas was getting to celebrate with Mattie Kate, the newest member of our family! She's my first niece and my mother's first granddaughter! Here she is in all her cuteness with her pretty Mama!

Even though this was a very hectic Christmas season for me, since I am still performing 5 shows a week in "Girls Only: The Secret Comedy of Women", I have to say that it was also one of my favorite Christmases in recent years. It seems like there was a lot of family togetherness, and I was so content being together. I love my family! Thank You, God, for letting me live my life with this wonderful gang!