Colton James We always planned that once we were able to finalize Tyler's adoption, we'd start working towards adopting again. As many of you know, once we decided to start the adoption process last time around it took a year and a half before we were able to bring Tyler home. Many people cautioned us that it might take longer the second time. Very often birth mothers will choose childless couples over couples who already have a child. We braced ourselves for a long wait and decided that starting as soon as possible was the best way to assure that Tyler wouldn't be too much older than our next new addition.
So in early December we sent in our application to Adoption STAR (the Buffalo agency that helped match us up with Tyler). At about the same time, one of my STAR friends was over for a playdate. She happened to mention another agency that they had come across in their wait - it's called Family Connections - located in Cortland, NY. I got online and filled out an information request with this agency and they called me back within hours. They sent us some information and a week later we scheduled an appointment with them for January 4th. We knew instantly that we were going to choose to work with both agencies - hoping to double our chances of finding a match.
Within weeks we had a profile opportunity with this new agency, but unfortunately it did not work out. Another two weeks went by and we were presented with yet another opportunity to be profiled with this new agency (2/5). We were blown away. This agency is relatively small - they often only place 2-4 babies a year. On top of that, in the year we waited to be matched with Tyler, we were only profiled 3 times before Tyler. Here we were with two opportunities in as many weeks. Not even two weeks ago, on Wednesday, February 10th, FC called to tell us that we had been chosen to parent a baby, gender unknown, due any day. We were ecstatic!
We began preparing for the birth of our newest addition immediately. We knew that we might not have a lot of time. Amazingly, we got all of our ducks in a row and even had my parents down for a visit (which made a great babysitting arrangement for Tyler), when in the early hours of Monday morning (1 am on the 15th) we got THE call that birthmom was in labor. We got the car loaded and headed for the Cortland hospital. At 3am we received a phone call from our social worker saying that the baby had been born at 2:56am - a baby boy weighing 7lbs 6 oz and 20 inches long! It was simply amazing! We named him Colton James
We arrived at the hospital at 3:30am and were brought in to meet Colton and his birthmom. It was such a great experience to meet her face-to-face and talk with her for a while. After a couple of hours they ushered us out so that J could take a shower. Just a little bit later they brought J to her room and then they brought us and Colton to our very own room. It was such a great experience to be able to stay right at the hospital with Colton all day Monday and Tuesday. We were able to see J one more time before we left. She had been discharged on Monday, but she returned on Tuesday to say goodbye to all of us. She brought the cutest outfit for Colton along with a teddy bear. She also brought a birthday present for Tyler and the most beautiful care for me and Chris. Finally, on Tuesday afternoon we were discharged. We made the 2 + hour drive home where we've been ever since. What an amazing week we had!
