It's A Boy!

We found out today that Murphy has a little brother, Jack Mateo!! Jack was born May 13 in Bogota, Colombia, and we can't wait to get down there and show him some love! We'll have to wait a little while, as the next steps in the process take about six weeks, so we're hoping to be there at the end of September. Bettina called us around 12:30 today and we stuck it out at work until 2:00, when we went home to look over all of the paperwork. He is a very healthy baby, had bronchitis and spent some time in the hospital, but has been healthy ever since. He was 6 pounds, 8 ounces at birth and was 19 inches long. We signed all of our papers and will send them in tomorrow. After Murphy got home we showed her the picture and she asked who he was. Rob told her "That's your baby brother" and she got a huge smile on her face. She has been preparing for this ever since she was 18 months old and got her first baby for Christmas. I'm sure we'll have some adjustment issues; she's been an only child for four years. I would say it's to be expected. So then we went over to Rob's parents' house and then to my mom and dad's. We lose cell phone service once we get north of Aberdeen so once we left Hecla, it took us a while before we could call our siblings. We got that done and then sent a text to my nieces and nephews. I have some texts ready to go for tomorrow morning as well as an email to go out. But we want to tell people at work first. Then we're ready for the whole world to know!

We had a clue last week that we were this close. Last Monday, August 1, we got an email from Bettina to update some of our documents. I'll have the last one tomorrow. Then they'll all be sent to the secretary of state for the notaries to be notarized. Then down to Colombia for our dossier. We are also waiting on our fingerprint appointment for the USCIS extenstion. We are going to go to the office in Sioux Falls and see if they will fingerprint us without an appointment. I'm hopeful they will, but won't be surprised if they don't.

It's been three years and two months since we started this process. We moved pretty slow in the beginning. We really weren't ready back then anyway. Then in December, we thought it could be any day. Any day turned into eight months. And the longer time went on, the more impatient we got. It was just so hard to explain to a little girl why we STILL don't have a baby brother or sister. (Hard for 38 and 40 year old's, too.) We knew there wasn't one thing anyone could do about it. Our baby just wasn't ready. And now he is. So, so, so worth the wait. We knew it would be but waiting is always hard. 

We are keeping Jack's birth parents in our prayers. We don't know how they are feeling right now and hope they are finding peace with their decisions. We pray this for Murphy's birth parents as well. It's been four years since they were at this stage and from we know about Murphy's birth mother, we expect that Murphy is never far from her heart. We will never be able to tell them how much we appreciate what they have done for us.

Hopefully I'll be better about posting. I'll have a lot to talk about! Thanks for being a part of this journey. We are so, so blessed.