Word on the street is that we’ve been chosen. Perhaps it was this subtle announcement that hit Facebook:

My friend Crystal, who also designed Adoption.com, designed this for us. It just seems fitting.

We are so excited. So much in fact, it’s been over a month and there’s so much to tell you. Well, once you’re chosen the ball really starts rolling. We booked a flight to meet Jody, the mother.

Bryce and I were so nervous. We were on a plane to meet the mother of the child we will be adopting. Words cannot express the magnitude of love, excitement, and nervousness we felt. Reality was sinking in.

Our flight had many stops, and one of which was in Atlanta, GA. It is necessary to eat fried chicken when in the south, so as not to be rude we immediately sought out fried chicken and were not disappointed.

 Our stomachs were full and we were on our last flight to meet Jody. We can’t hide our excitement. Almost every stranger we meet learns of our hopes to adopt in November. We probably annoy more than we know, but who the heck cares. WE ARE ADOPTING!

After arriving in Florida, it’s time to celebrate Bryce’s birthday. He completely forgot it was his birthday with everything happening in our life. I didn’t even get him a gift (extremely uncharacteristic of me)! However, we spent our day exploring. I must say, for the end of September, the Gulf is very warm. Bryce and I couldn’t stop enjoying all of the wildlife in the water. I think we hung out on the pier for a few hours just taking it all in.

Then the day finally came, September 26th, to meet Jody. I was so nervous. We arrived at her favorite pizza place, Mellow Mushroom, with a bouquet of flowers in hand and met her and her dad, Bill. At the sight of Jody I began to cry. I couldn’t help it. Jody even said “You seem so nervous!” I was. My next comment was “You’re taller than I expected!” What an amazing experience. We sat down and began talking about… everything. And then Jody handed us her ultrasound photos. I passed them over to Bryce. I don’t know if Jody or Bill noticed Bryce’s body language the way I did. Bryce was holding back tears. I cannot express the love we felt. I tried to play it off as to not create a scene. We don’t need to be emotional wacko’s (especially on our first meeting)!

We finished lunch and then went swimming in the Gulf. It was BEAUTIFUL. And so relaxing. Floating in the warm water and just getting to know each other was an experience I’ll never forget. Who knows how long we were in the water. Afterwords we decided to walk along the touristy shops. We stopped and got ice cream, which was delicious, and then we entered something truly awesome: Dave & Busters. It’s the Chuck-E-Cheese for adults. We loaded a card with tokens and started playing. An employee, probably bored at work, started playing games with us and showing us around to all of the really fun games. He couldn’t keep his tickets so we were given them. At the end, we collected our large pile of tickets and hit the prize area.

There’s lots of prizes to be won, and we had quite a few tickets. Ultimately, we decided Jody should get the prize…… DUH! She chose an adorable stuffed animal. You may recognize it.

I honestly wished the day would never end. We had so much fun. Jody returned home and we returned to our hotel with plans to meet the next day. Oh man. The emotions in the car after that day. Bryce and I were a mess. We could barely keep it together to drive back. Somehow, we made it.

We continued to hang out. Jody and Bill took us around where they live and showed us the non-touristy side of Florida. What a difference! It was so cool to see everything. We got to try boiled peanuts, which were… interesting. Apparently, we had the best in the county! We will definitely stick to roasted peanuts.

All in all we had a wonderful time. The trip felt too short. We cannot wait to go back in November. Can you believe she’s less than 6 weeks away from being due?

Our trip was amazing. Jody and Bill are amazing. We are so excited to have them as part of our family.

I cannot finish this post without recognizing God and His hand in all of this. Our adoption plans happened quicker than we expected. However, when I look back it’s amazing to see how God’s been forming our family – for years. From our first overwhelming realization that it was time to grow our family in 2011, learning of our infertility, getting a job with Elevati, and deciding to adopt: All of it has been His doing. We cannot deny that our family is being created through God’s will. We feel so blessed and so awe-struck to witness our family being organized on this side of the veil.

Perhaps in my next post, with Jody’s permission, I’ll share how Jody came to chose us and her story. Her story, again, shows us how involved God is in our life, and how much He knows us and answers our prayers.