The Ultrasound Says . . .

The day after our match meeting the birth parents found out the gender of the baby. When their social worker called to confirm that it was a match she said that the birth parents wanted to tell us the gender in person. She gave the birth family our phone numbers that night. Derek and I waited for the next few days anxiously awaiting the call to get together again.

The birth grandmother called almost a week later to set up our meeting. It was a great conversation full of checking in and excitement for everything that our families are now sharing. At the end of the conversation she told me to talk with Derek and come up with a time to meet up with them. After not very much talk Derek and I decided that Saturday, May 19, 2012 would be the day. When I called the birth grandmother back I told her to ask the birth parents where they wanted to meet. During our match meeting we had discussed meeting for frozen yogurt, but asked her to confirm.

On Saturday Derek and I both experienced butterflies all day as we contemplated the gender of the baby. Derek was sure that it was a girl and I continued with my pessimistic view of life and said it was going to be a boy. We have both said all along that we want a girl, but of course would be happy with just a baby! Either way we had a 50% chance of being right which is pretty great odds!

We arrived at the yogurt place a few minutes early and awaited their arrival. This meeting was different because we knew what they looked like and a little about their personalities. When they walked in their excitement filled the room. the birth mom was carrying a gift wrapped in pink and blue paper to not give away the surprise. We greeted with hugs and ordered our ice cream. It was interesting to see their choices to compare our likes and dislikes!

We sat and shared more about our lives including our hobbies, the ending of the school year, plans for the summer, etc. We were laughing with each other that sparked a comment from our birth mom that touched our hearts, "I have laughed more today than I have in a long time. This is why we picked you!" Every time we see them the path that God put into place was shown again.

Once we finished our ice cream we opened the gift. Derek opened one side and I opened the other. Derek could not look in the box because he was too nervous. Once I opened it up I saw pink scrapbook paper and was hoping for the best. Sure enough, there were ultrasound pictures of our baby and our hopes and dreams were granted, a girl! There was also a cute sundress for next summer in the box to add to this girl's growing wardrobe.

After the discovery we again shared our name for a baby girl, Kearsta, and let them know that we wanted them to choose her middle name. We feel that it is very important that they are able to give Kearsta as many gifts as possible to show their love for her throughout her life. They were surprised and ecstatic that they were going to have the opportunity to give her a name.

Kearsta's first photo!

This was such a special moment as we didn't think that we would ever see the ultrasound pictures. This will be framed and put in the nursery so we can tell Kearsta this story for years to come!