Today is Vienna’s first birthday!!! We are holding a Pixie Princess Party on Sunday evening for her. Tonight we are keeping her celebration small and intimate (if Lee ever gets home). We are opening up presents from the Nannas and eating a tiny cake for a tiny princess. This day last year, I was on pins and needles. We had been waiting for the call that our birthmother was going into labor for over a month. Vienna came very late. Every day I wondered, “Is today the day?” If you know me really well, you know I always have my cell phone on silent. This time last year, I had my cell phone on “outdoor loud” and “vibrate” and kept it in my pocket at all times. I even wore my robe to bed with the phone in it…just in case. I was so afraid I would miss the phone call. Every time the phone rang my heart would skip two or three beats, thinking that may be it was “the call.” It would always be either my sister, mom, or best friend, Alison asking “Have we heard anything?” I would say no and then politely try to get them off the phone…just in case. Then (this day last year) “the call” came. Our beloved parent-in-partnership had gone into labor and was being whisked to the hospital. She said, “I’m going to the hospital and we are having this baby.” I couldn’t believe it. Reality set in. I was getting a newborn baby. A few hours later, we got another call, “A little girl. 9 pounds 2 ounces. 21 inches long. She is perfect and has a lot of hair.” I never understood u
ntil that moment why people were so obsessed with the stats of their newborn baby. I can’t even explain it now, but those little numbers aren’t just anything -they are your baby’s statistics. Our birthmother had kept the gender vague on purpose during her pregnancy so we wouldn’t be disappointed either way. I had had a little girl nursery ready for over a year and a half. But I hadn’t been in it for almost a year. I never went in that little girl nursery, I only hoped one day I would go in with a little daughter. A little newborn and a girl seemed to wonderful to even express. My hands shaking I called my family. “We’ve got a little girl. We’ve got a little girl. 9 pounds 2 ounces 21 inches long. She’s perfect and has a lot of hair.” Less than 12 hours later we were in Colorado. Once again, I was shaking. To be completely honest, I was a mess. I couldn’t even get out of the car. I was so nervous. Lee basically carried me into the hospital. The few months prior, I had become incredibly close to our wonderful birthmother through email, but this would be the first time I would meet her in person…and the first time I would meet my (hopefully) daughter. Lee finally got me up to the hospital room (we had to stop a few times on the way to say a prayer and get me together). And then I saw this beautiful woman with a million dollar smile sitting in a hospital bed. She was even more wonderful than I had imagined. A few minutes later, they brought our daughter in. I fell completely in love the moment I saw her. She looked nothing like I had imagined. She was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. She was wrapped in a little pink blanket and she had these huge beautiful eyes peering at me. See photo. She was nothing like a newborn baby. She was aware of her world. Her eyes stared straight at me. We had planned on naming her Leila. But after seeing her, I knew that wasn’t nearly beautiful enough for this angel. I decided on Vienna, because right before I flew to Uganda to begin our adoption process for a little boy and girl, I had visited Vienna. It is was one of the most delicate, talented, and beautiful places I had ever traveled to. It just seemed fitting that our adoption journey to our little daughter end in a name that represented such a beautiful destination. We spent several lovely hours at the hospital with Vienna and our wonderful birthmother. I left filled in aw
e of this beautiful little girl and filled with hope…and worry. Although, our wonderful birthmother was completely lovely and confident in her decision and the adoption agency confirmed to me over and over again that she wasn’t going to go back on her decision, I still worried. I had experienced loss. I had had this experience before. I had had babies within my grasp – only to have them taken away. I began to get scared. We wouldn’t be able to pick her up and have all the papers signed until the next day. My heart worried, but then as we were driving back to our hotel room, the most beautiful sunset emerged and I knew it was God telling me that everything was going to be alright this time. And it was.Vienna came home with us to Dallas and she has been the apple of our eye and sparkle of our home ever since. She is our gift and our sunshine. Words cannot express the greatness of the gift we received on this most wonderful of birthdays last year!
