The Big Reveal

It's time to start sharing Smith's sweet adoption story.  Russ and received THE CALL on a lazy Saturday morning in late August.  Karen, the Bethany director, was on the other end of the line and said, "Megan..." in her low tone voice (which usually means big news).  "Yes?" I answered from the comfort of my bed.  Russ had woken up with Millie Janalee and let me sleep in that day.  "Is Russ there?" "Yes..." I answered a little more nervously.  I jumped straight up from bed and ran downstairs to where Russ was.  "Are you sitting down?" she asked.  Ummmm...at this point, my heart was racing and I had put her on speakerphone.  Russ's eyes were as big as saucers, and I was thinking "Surely not!  Not this soon.  What else could it be?!"  Then she told us.  We sat in shock staring at each other. She gave us all the information we needed about the birthparents.  We left the conversations with talks of meeting them sometime in September, since it would take some planning on our part for Russ to take off work and travel from Missouri to Jackson, MS.

September 20th was the day.  We left Millie Janalee with my dad and brother, and we traveled south bright and early that Saturday morning.  In case you thought it would be easier to do this the second time around, you were wrong!  I couldn't eat breakfast.  In fact, I couldn't eat much of anything that entire week.  We laid eyes on them, gave hugs, and spent the next 2-3 hours talking, laughing, and crying together.  It always amazes me how God places families together.  Binds hearts and forms extended families based on the common love for a child.  We finished the joint meeting without a clue as to the gender!  It was killing me.  Ha!

Russ and I had some time to digest everything and talk things through on our 3 1/2 hour ride back to our hometown.

When we found out it was a baby BOY, we came up with a quick, fun way to reveal the news to our family.  Of course, we needed to let Millie Janalee know too.

"Yay! A brother!"

It took a while for the reality to actually hit her I think.  Haha!

"What?? I won't be the baby anymore!?"

"I don't want a sibling! Give him back!"  LOL!

We made our rounds to the rest of the family.  Announcements during a halftime, a surprise visit to Maw Maw's, and a fun announcement before the mealtime prayer at Russ's parents' house.  There were cheers, shock, and smiles all around!  A baby boy was on his way to our family!

We loved him then just like we loved him before we knew about him!

And we love him even more now!  Precious in His sight indeed.