Sue and Lou's Adoption Journey: August 2013

I started this blog to keep friends and family updated but I obviously didn't hold up my end of the bargain. Our daughter Elisabetta Tenconi D'Angelo, we call her Elle, was born July 15th at 109am. She was a healthy 7lbs 2 ozs and 20 inches long.

Now I'll take a step back and fill in the blanks. Lou and I were matched with a birthmom on June 17th. She's from a small coastal town a few hours south of us. We were in touch via email and drove down and met her about a week later. Lou and I took her to lunch and felt a great connection with her. She is smart, funny and very sweet. We chatted easily for over 2 hours. After we dropped her off we felt great and very hopeful. I drove down to visit several more times and went to the rest of her doctor's appts. The due date was up in the air since there wasn't an early ultrasound. We finally got a date for the scheduled C-section 1st week in July, her date for July 15th, just a week away.

We tied up loose ends, bought the rest of the baby stuff we needed and drove down the night of July 14th. We were to be at the hospital at 530am but Elle had a different agenda. Birthmom went into labor night of the 14th. We rushed to the hospital and she was born at 109am. I could see the operation outside the OR door and I saw her being pulled out, we did not know the sex prior so it was exciting, emotional, amazing! I was the first to hold our little girl. Wow, it was sure a moment that Lou and I will never forget. We stayed the night two nights in the hospital and we were all released on the 16th.

We've been blessed with a healthy, beautiful, easy (!) daughter. We are just over the moon! We're still in touch with her birthmom who we care about very much.