How fast thing change

For all those following at home here's the end of the Disney recap. . . We spent 13 hours at Magic Kingdom on Sunday. Had a great time with great weather, the girls rode all the rides available to them - Ella absolutely loved Space Mountain!! - that's my girl!! The evening ended with us waiting in line to see Mickey and Minnie. Alle started to run out of steam and by the time it was our turn. She was passed out in my arms! The girls will have great memories and Alle will always remember that she missed out on seeing Mickey and Minnie . ..but they saw her!!



(eventually I will insert some of the Disney pics here but they are not on this computer so you'll have to wait - however I must warn it actually may or may not happen; you've been warned



*********************************************************************

The Move or The Addition



So I mentioned in a previous post that we have decided that our family was moving back to TX. We have been really excited ever since we broke the news in late Jan. We are looking forward to getting back to new jobs (which technically are also old jobs - for both of us), we re looking forward to getting back to great friends and a great Church. . . and for those of you suffering through the cold and snow - which includes those of you in South Carolina, we are looking forward to getting back to the weather of North Texas!!



With that said, as if relocating (again) and organizing the logistics of me living away from my family for 3 weeks, while our house continues to be for sale and The Wife continues to finish up her last couple weeks of school is not enough we found out Fri (Feb 20) that the we were going to have a new addition to our family. Now before you get all happy and excited for what The Wife is going to go through over the next 7 months or so you should know that this type of addition is one that we found out about on Fri and completed on Monday (sort of).



I have told this story so many times that I wish that I actually had spent the time to write it out and just pass it around. But every time I do tell I get more and more excited and I see God's handiwork all over it. So here goes:



In late Sept after meeting with a co-worker (now former co-worker) and his wife who also happened to attend church with us, who also happen to be the proud parents of Lizzy - their little adopted baby girl we felt lead to seek out an adoption attorney. Our reasons were simple - we have a great family (both immediate and extended) we have a whole lot of love to give out and we have a true desire to represent the example that God laid out in the bible in the form of adoption. We had very open requirements, any boy or girl (preferred a boy but were open to anything) between the ages of 2 and 5 - it would be an added bonus if he had already mastered mid range jump shots and the half cross-over. We were told at the time by our attorney that he may only come across a couple kids a year that met that type of requirement - so we said it would be ok if he could only shoot left handed lay-ups. . .we'd work on the rest. We also said that that age is the niche that we want to fill and we would be patient as we went on with our lives.



Shortly after retaining our attorney we started on the homestudy path. We got great recommendations from our friends, we filled out all the paperwork then. . . . well then we got a job offer from TX. Over the next two months we were so focused on how we would get our family to Texas and then how everything would work out that we had nearly forgotten about adoption plans. Then The Wife and I flew to Texas for a weekend to do some house hunting. After visiting with our good friends we found 1 of them to be pregnant and another that hasn't ruled it out. After some time and prayer we had decided that once we got to Texas we would expand our age requirement and open it up to younger children. Then Friday happened. . .



Actually Thursday night happened first (funny how that always happens!), before we went to bed The Wife and I came to the conclusion that because a house that we were really interested in was about to go up for auction we were prepared to through out a low ball offer on it in the chance to pick it up on the cheap. So Fri morning The Wife calls the realtor to set up a deal. Unfortunately, she got the voicemail . . . or maybe fortunately. About three hours later we got a call from the attorney's office informing us of a little boy (jump shot undetermined) in NC that needed a home and if we were interested. It didn't take us long to determine that we were interested but were they interested in us knowing of our looming departure from SC. After a few checks we found out that we were in fact candidates and due to our little ones and Desi maybe even frontrunners!



My last day at work turned into complete chaos as we tried to set up an in home visit with a homestudy investigator, finish up paperwork stuff and all in all prepare for being a father (potentially at that point). The investigator came and left by 9:20 and made arrangements for his return at 9:00 Saturday morning to finish up the obligatory two in home visits - even if Saturday morning consisted of only one question and tour of the house. By 10:30 we were heading out of the house due to a showing of the house (which by the way is primed for someone to make an offer - talking to you Schaberg!) At 11:00 while in the McDonald's parking lot we took a phone call from the NC agency representing The Boy. By 12:30 we were back home waiting on a phone call from the birth mother to introduce ourselves. That awkward conversation lasted about 20 minutes and then shortly after we found out she had decided that we were the ones that she wanted to raise her little boy! The feelings that we felt while talking to her were everything you can imagine.



The news of the choice meant a quick trip downtown to sign some paperwork and then a 6 hour drive to the North Carolina Atlantic coast. This may be a good time to mention that on Monday I am still expected to be at work in Texas. The van was packed, Desi was ready and The Wife and I were prepared for 3 weeks of being separated by 900 miles. The original plan was for me to leave Saturday and take two days to comfortably get into DFW area my late afternoon. Instead we will be driving 400 miles the other direction to meet our new little boy for the first time.



We arrived in town in time to swing by and pick up some gifts - including a Desi look-a-like with a promise that the real thing will lick him more! We had a great visit and the interaction between both me and The Boy and The Wife and The Boy went very good. I have never been prouder of The Wife as I was on Saturday night as she connected with her new little boy. The end of the meeting brought another round of washing machine emotions. It also brought another 5 hours in the car!! The drive went pretty fast as we talked adoption details, move details, family details and most importantly how much I love The Wife - at least I am pretty sure I brought that up a couple of times!



We finally pulled into the drive around 2:00 am Sunday morning - just in time for me to wrap up a couple last minute things on the computer (of course the work that I did went for naught when I forgot to bring my external hard drive with me!). I was comfy in bed by 2:30 and not really looking forward to the 7:30 wake up call that was about to lead to another 16 hours in the car.



** This is getting long and I am getting tired - Check back in a couple days for the amazing details of the drive (not really) but at least the rest of the story of the Wife and her adventures in North Carolina **