Spent a lot of time with the birthmother...

Yesterday afternoon, I met Danielle and we went to the mall... walked around and talked a bit... got a mani / pedi... and then went to grab take-out dinner to bring back to the room so she could visit with Mercer.


This morning, Danielle, her father, and her brother came to the hotel for a final facilitated meeting with the social worker. Her dad wanted to meet us. It went well and all of us had a bit of small talk and he told us a few things about Danielle when she was a baby. I did talk to him a little bit one-on-one and he said the most important thing for his daughter is that we keep things open and stay in touch. We can definitely do that.

We played with her little brother for awhile and left Danielle and Mercer to spend some alone time together in the next room.

Danielle brought us a book called Games Babies Play that someone gave to her when she was pregnant -- telling you how to interact and stimulate the baby at various stages. She also brought in her sonograms for us to make copies of. She definitely cares very much for him and we know this is hard on her. We promise to keep in touch... write, send photos, visit occassionally, etc.

Todd & I need to split soon. My step sister's son attends the Air Force Academy here in Colorado Springs. He's about to stop by so we can go to dinner. He runs track for the Academy and his dad and aunt are in town for a match he was in. Some of you who are reading this may have met him a few years ago -- Kyle stayed with us for awhile (he thought he wanted to be an architect) and he came to work and jobsites with us. He's in the Academy studying Civil Engineering instead. He's a great kid. (well, technically, he's not a kid anymore.)


Also, tomorrow (depending on how much snow we get overnight) we're going to meet with my cousin, Josh, who lives in Denver. We're "moving" to Denver Monday, but with his work & houseguests... we may not be able to connect - so Sunday's a time that we all can meet.


Things are going well. Things were finalized on Friday with the state of Colorado and we heard that the paperwork went out today. There is a concern (on mine & Todd's part) that the birthfather could not be found, however -- per law -- the attorney puts a legal notice in the paper and he has a couple of weeks to respond. Danielle told me yesterday during our afternoon of beautification that we shouldn't worry about the birthfather. He didn't want anything to do with the baby... and he won't pose a problem -- even if he is found. I feel bad for her that this was his attitude, but it bodes well for us and presented us with this amazing opportunity. The social worker here, our social worker, and our adoption consultant are not concerned... this is very typical. We'll see -- and we'll be sighing a huge sigh of relief in a few weeks if all goes as is planned.