Moriah's Birth Story

I can't believe she's going to be one month next week! How does that happen? It's been on my heart to put her story in words while it's still fresh in my mind, but our little one has been battling reflux and now that we have it under control, praise the Lord...I can manage thoughts and form complete sentences. We love this little girl more than words can express, she is the Lord's first and foremost, and she is ours, His gift to us. I feel so blessed, I feel his hand resting over us more than I ever have. There is no difference in our love for her even if I'd carried her for nine months and bore her myself. We'd do anything for her. I hear all the time from friends that having a child brings about such spiritual revelation on truly seeing God's great love for us as a Dad...but I truly believe him giving her to us through adoption makes it even more real. What a parallel to his love for us and the how he has called us his own through our spiritual adoption.

When I think back to June 8th, K's water had already been broken and we were waiting on this little girl to arrive. My heart was so full, so completely overwhelmed, in a good way. To tell you all that God did in those 48 hours in Fort Worth will take some time, but I promise you that you'll be blessed and you'll be encouraged because God is so faithful and he revealed himself to every person that entered that room in a powerful and mighty way. I think this post will mainly be all the details of the day....I'll get to the weighty stuff next.

Jacob and I arrived at the hospital Wednesday morning June 8th at 7:30. We brought with us our dear friend, Kristen Laughlin, who is an adoption photographer. Here's her site if you're interested in seeing her work, http://www.kristinjphotography.com/. She travels with families to capture the great story of their adoptions. She's incredibly gifted and it was even more of a blessing to have her there for support and encouragement. K was so gracious and allowed Kristen to be in the delivery room and capture those first moments and my face as our little girl came into the world.

K had already been at 2cm before she arrived at the hospital. They were inducing at 38.5 weeks because her blood pressure was really high and she was swelling too much. They started her on pitocin around 8 and broke her water at 9:30am. She labored until 1:30 and her pain went from 0 to 7. She made it to 4cm and asked for her epidural. After the epidural she stalled a bit at 4 and around 3pm they flipped her on her side and she went from 4-6cm in about an hour. Then they flipped her back to the other side and about 45 min later she told us she felt the urge to push. We called in her nurse and she was at a 9! It seemed like she began pushing only about 45 min after that. Labor became intense and because her blood pressure was at 255/120, they would only let her push every other contraction for fear she could have a stroke. As those that have been through labor know, it's insanely hard not to push when everything in your body is telling you too. Both K and her precious mom were crying and she was struggling with the pain. They called in the anesthesiologist for one more block on the epidural about 45 min before Moriah was born. I knew I had to be strong. Her mom because she was watching her daughter hurt so badly and was hating it. I made eye contact with Kristen a couple times, knew she was praying. I also mouthed to K's mom to "hang in there" and I prayed. I prayed my little heart out asking God to protect K and Moriah. Baby girl was crowning with every push and then would move back up. It was intense. As her doctor came in, I knew it was close. At 8:55pm, she came out face up and tiny! I cut the cord and blood sprayed all over my sweater! They whisked her off to the baby nurse team and we heard those little cries. I was the first to hold her, then K, and then Jacob. Oh what joy! I just can't even describe watching my daughter be born. It was the most incredible event I've ever witnessed and I will never ever forget it. I am not sure how you could doubt that there is a Creator after seeing such a miracle. When J came in to see his little girl for the first time my heart melted and so did his. He's such an incredible daddy, felt bonded to her from the second he took her in his arms.

What a joy for God to provide strong Christian nurses all day long! Lynda and Jamie were incredible, and it made it all the more sweeter to have sisters in the Lord helping our sweet K. We had sweet Anna who gave Moriah her first bath and who hugged Jacob and I and cried with us...giving us a beautiful poem before we left about being a mom. Also thankful for all of our baby nurses who took care of our sweet biscuit, for Stacy, who had a miscarriage last Christmas, we cried many tears together. What a blessing that K gave me in allowing me to be there in that room and plug this event away in my mind to share with our daughter one day.

I pondered all of this in the next 48 hours while we waited for placement. I was so overwhelmed, for K and her decision, for the long awaited gift asleep in my arms, for our families there, and for the love I felt for K and her family. It was all I could do to keep it together.