4 Weeks..

A few days ago I laid Jace belly down on the floor while I got his bath ready. I came back to get him and he was laying off the blanket on his back. What a smarty! Rolling from his belly to his back at only four weeks. He hasn't done it since, but I'm still giving him credit.

He has also started smiling in response to our smiles. He is really alert and loves to look around with his big eyes. He also has incredible neck strength. He has had that from day one though. Lifting him up, we have never had to support his head. He can now lift his head up and hold it there for a few minutes. It is amazing. At this rate he will be walking when he is 3 months old...

Two Week Check-up

At Jace's two week check-up he was 6 pounds 9 ounces (10th percentile) and they claim he shrunk an inch to 18 1/2 inches (not on the charts so below zero percentile). He is doing great at gaining weight though! The doctor said that usually they just hope the baby will be back to birth weight at two weeks.

Signing Day

Here we are on signing day. We had to wait for 5 days before LaTonya could sign the paper. It was an emotional day for us all.

Back to the Hotel

After we left the hospital we went back to our hotel in Monroe, Louisiana. We stayed there for about 2 weeks waiting for all the paper work to go through. Things seemed to be moving very slow because it was around Christmas and both offices were working understaffed. First we had to get approval from Louisiana to leave the state with Jace and then they sent in on the Utah to get approval for Jace to enter the state. Our flight was for December 22nd in the afternoon. We went to the airport still without approval. Luckily we got the phone call about 45 minutes before our plane took off. I don't know what we would have done if it didn't come through. We were so worried that we were going to have change everything last minute.

The first few days...

We spent 4 days in the hospital with Jace. LaTonya was on the same floor as us, so we were able to spend some time with her and get to know her better. Meeting her for the first time eased all doubt about things falling through. She loved Jace so much and you could tell that she just wanted the best for him. She knew that he needed a mother and a father in his life. I can't even imagine what emotions she had to go through. We learned that she had about 10 different profiles but she kept coming back to us. It made us realize that if we would have waited even a few days longer to send in our application, we wouldn't have been in the stack she received. The Lord really is in control of our lives! It is amazing how things work out.

Staying in the hospital was pretty hard. Mike had to go back to the hotel and take a final for his MBA program, but I didn't see the outside world for 4 days. LaTonya got released after 3 days, but Jace wasn't eating well so we had to stay one more. I think the fear of staying there forever got us all motivated to get him eating. Everyone at the hosptial was so nice and helpful with our special circumstances. Here are some pictures of the days at the hospital:

Jace Michael Womack was born December 7, 2009. He weighed 5 pounds 12 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. Jace was born in Minden, Louisiana. He was the best Christmas gift we could receive. Here is his birth story...

We had to wait almost 4 years for Jace to be ready to join us. We had done all the fertility treatment out there and then after much prayer decided we should adopt an African American baby. A friend in our neighborhood knew of an attorney in Louisiana that specialized in Adoption. We sent in our application and set up a time to have a meeting with the attorney over the phone. Before that meeting could take place Ms. Terri Odom's office called us with a possible adoption situation. It was our sweet Jace. We found out that we had been chosen in the beginning of October, so we didn't have to wait very long, but at times it seemed like forever! We didn't meet Jace's birthmom, LaTonya until the day Jace was born, but we did get to know her over the phone. She is the sweetest lady and we are so grateful for her.

LaTonya was scheduled for a C-section on December 10th so we were going to fly down on on the 8th and then meet her on the 9th before she went to the hospital. On December 3, she called us to let us know that she had just left the doctor's and he moved her C-section to December 7th. Talk about stress! I spent the whole day on the phone trying to changes things so we could be there the day Jace was born. Luckily we worked it out and flew in the day before he was born.

We got to the hospital that morning and waited what seemed like forever to get to see our little boy. The social worker came in and said she had seen him and he is beautiful... but we had to wait about 4 more hours before it was our turn. Finally they brought him to our room and we got to keep him for the rest of the stay. Holding him for the first time was the best feeling in the world. We just knew that he was ours and all the waiting and pain of infertility finally became worth it.