Update

We met with our social worker last week. She said everything is going well on the legal side of the adoption. Relinquishment has been signed by the birth mother and filed in Sacramento, they should be receiving confirmation anytime now, then we can have a party! :) The agency's private investigator is looking into the birth father. They found an address and if it is current will serve him for court and he will have 30 days, then the court will terminate his rights.

Cadan is growing so fast! We have had several outings, even going to Yosemite.

We are enjoying every moment with our little man!

Mother's Day

What a blessing to be able to celebrate Mother's Day as a mother myself! We had two days full of celebrating mamas. It was fabulous!

Mama McCormack, Me & Cadan, and Mama Lamb

Pictures

A few more pictures...it wouldn't let me upload more to the last post.

Is this not the cutest outfit! Love the shoes!

We are prety sure his hair will be curly since he is 3/4 black, but you never know. It is pretty straight now.

Cadan loves the wrap! He hangs out in it every time we go out somewhere. It keeps people from touching him with their germy hands too!

He loves the bath in this little tub. He did not like it in a big one though. I think he feels more secure in this one.

This is what our day consists of, and we love it! Jake has 4 weeks off work and I have 8. We are soaking it up!

Our first week

Cadan has been a very easy baby so far. He didn't even cry when he went to the doctor and had to get a heel prick. He was very healthy at his check up...he still measured the same as he did at discharge, 6lb 11oz and 20in. We really liked the pediatrician we saw at Kaiser and plan to use him as our primary.

Our little man is a mover and wiggler! He is so strong too. We have a book (I posted a picture of it earlier, the black, red, and white book) that he loves to stare at. He also enjoys his bouncer Auntie Crystal got for him.

 

His umbilical cord stump fell off after only 5 days. We were able to give him a bath and he LOVED it!

We are looking forward to newborn pictures with Gina Guthrie on Saturday and Mother's Day on Sunday. We can't even express how blessed we feel! Life has truly never been better!

Home!

Our first day home was filled with many visitors! There is no lack of love and attention for this child!



Grammy and Grandma



Grandpa





Papa



 

Aunties and Cousin Taylor





Uncle Clay

It was a day filled with first encounters!

Our social worker recommended that we do all of the feedings and most of the holding, which we have done. Cadan definitely knows who his mom and dad are! We just love him so so much!

Day 1 April 27, 2011

We were awake on and off throughout the night, at 5am we just couldn't hold in our news any longer, so we sent a mass text to tell our friends about Cadan's birth (And woke many of them up!).

The pediatrician from the hospital came in and said Cadan looked great and could go home that evening once he was a full 24 hours old. It was funny because when she walked into the room this is what she saw...

Haha, she did a double take and said, "Well I don't see this everyday!" But she said it was great to see a dad doing skin to skin, and talked about how important it was that we do skin to skin especially with an adopted baby.

It was love at first sight for us!

The day was filled with feedings and diaper changes, all of that newborn stuff. :) We spent most of the day in the birthmother's room so she could spend time with Cadan. Cadan's biological 16 month old half brother came to meet him too. It was cute. :) We made sure we found things to do so the birthmother had some time alone with Cadan. We felt like this was really her time and she was inviting us into it. We will have so many years to gaze at him and love on him, but this will be her only chance for a while anyway.

All of this being born stuff is tiring!

 The time came to leave. What an emotional day! We were so excited to take Cadan home, but our hearts were just breaking for the birthmother. No matter how sure she was that this was the right decision and no matter how confident she was that we were the right parents for Cadan, it doesn't change the fact that she is, in a way, losing a child and must grieve that. As you can imagine we were all crying during the goodbye.

Except Cadan, he was asleep.

 On our way home we stopped at GGma and GGpa Lamb's house. It was time to feed and change Cadan. We were so blessed to have the opportunity to introduce our little man to his great grandparents!

That drive home felt soooo long! We arrived home around 11:30pm and were just exhausted. Thankfully Cadan slept well, only waking up to eat. By the next day we were feeling much better.

Cadan's Birthday April 26, 2011

As I finally sit down to write this I think, how can I cram everything that has happened in the last 9 days into a blog post! lol

On Tuesday April 26, 2011 around 4:20pm I received a call at work, it was the birthmother's sister in law calling to tell us that the birthmother was in labor! I called Jake and we rushed home to pack our bag, grab the diaper bag and carseat, and rush down to Bakersfield. Around 5:00 we were told the birthmother's contractions were 10 minutes apart. At 6:00 they were 3 minutes apart! We left Oakdale around 6:00. We didn't tell anyone we were headed to Bakersfield...for a couple reasons. 1. If it was a false call we didn't want to get hopes up, 2. We didn't want our phones to be ringing like crazy while we were trying to meet our new son.

About an hour down the road we got a call...He is here!!! In the background we heard baby cries! We were so excited...a little emotional (The speedometer might have crept up a bit). The birthmother's sister in law sent pictures to us right away. Cadan was 6 pounds 12 ounces and 20 inches long.

We found out that he was born 6 minutes after they walked into the hospital! So there is no way we would have made it in time anyway. We didn't mind at tall though. We were just so excited to hear he was doing great and we would meet him so soon!

We arrived at the hospital around 9:15pm and were elated to meet our son! He was so perfect in every way. The birthmother was doing great. Her sister in law and a family friend were there for support too. (Just for a laugh...I totally put my foot in my mouth when I asked the sister in law if the other woman was her mom. They looked a lot alike, but I know better than to say that! Of course it wasn't her mom and they are close to the same age. iyiyi! At least they were good natured about it! lol)

Around 10:30pm we sent a text to our family members with this picture...



Cadan Lee 6lb 12oz and 20in

You can imagine the reaction from Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts and Uncles (Many of whom were asleep before we sent the text) Everyone was so excited!

We spent about 2 hours in the room with the birthmother, then we took Cadan a couple of doors down to another room the hospital prepared for us. The hospital was so awesome! They handled everything so well and were very sensitive to the situation. We were so thankful to have our own room so we could stay and take care of Cadan overnight. He did great, like most couple hour old babies! He slept except for when we woke him up to eat. We didn't sleep a whole lot though. We could hardly believe he was here! This day we had been waiting for for so long! We ended the night with a prayer of thanksgiving to the creator of families. <3