The beginning of our story...

Addison Grace turned 1 month old on the 3rd. It's so hard to believe she is already that old.

I figured this would be a good time to start telling our wonderful, crazy, amazing story :)

I was contacted by my mom in March about a woman that had decided to give her baby up for adoption, my mom did not have many details but wanted to mention it to us and tell me to expect a call that night. Later that night, I got the best call of my life. I was contacted by a family member of  birth mom about the possibility of adopting a baby girl that was due May 2nd. We talked about the possibility and a few concerns. After a long conversation, it was decided that I would talk to Luke about it and we would pray about it and get back to the family. I mentioned it to Luke that night and it was the easiest decision we ever made. There was a baby who needed a forever family. We KNEW that we were supposed to be her forever mommy and daddy. And thus this process began!! :)

The next 2 months were busy! We were both working as well as me going to nursing school...then we added in the home study process.  We found a case worker here in Springfield and a lawyer in Iowa. We shared many phone conversations with them, the birth family, and our families. We got HIV tested, TB tested, got physicals, fingerprinted for the FBI, reference letters, confirmation letters from our jobs, a few background checks, wrote autobiographies, filled out a 23 page application, baby proofed our house, and suffered through had 2 home visits with individual interviews, interview together and a walk through of our house. My brother and his family came from Iowa with a crib, changing table, car seat, and lots of clothes...they helped us paint, decorate the nursery and do some seriously cleaning. Luke's brother and family gave us a swing, bouncy seat, bath tub, and another car seat. We got clothes and diapers from the birth family. * Side note-we were so extremely blessed by both of our families!* We were a bit stressed that we wouldn't be done with the homestudy in time, but we were done early..and then we waited. I know that every parent is very anxious when it gets to the end of pregnancy, and although I wasn't pregnant it was still stressful! We knew that once she went into labor, we would have to leave whatever we were doing, and drive 6 hours to Iowa. One of my fears was not making it in time! As it turns out, the complete opposite happened to us. Birth mom started having constractions over a week before she gave birth, they became consistent about a week before. On Monday April 29, she went to the doctor and was told she was in labor and was sent to the hospital (yay), after hearing this, Luke and I packed the car and headed to Iowa! We were about an hour away and heard she was being sent home (boo).  However, we decided to finish the drive anyway; we figured she would be having the baby soon. We ended up being in Iowa about 3 1/2-4 days waiting for our daughter to be born. There were times that week that were extremely frustrating and made me wish we had waited in Missouri. BUT that week ended up being one of the best things we could've done. During that week, we spent alot of time with the birth family, including going to a counseling session and doctor appointment with birth mom. It was a bonding week and made everybody feel better about the whole thing (at least I think so).
After a very long week, we went to the doctor on Friday May 3rd and was sent to labor and delivery once again...only this time we actually got to stay!! Labor was long, but birth mom did GREAT and my  healthy, beautiful, miracle of a baby girl was born at 10:11 that night. :) Addison Grace Clark was 7.49 oz and 19 in long.

I will tell her birth story later, but this is the start of our story :)
We still have awhile before its all finale and are dealing with a stressful, not good lawyer situation...but this journey is incredible and I'm trying toenjoy every minute with my little miss :)