Jehovah-jirah

The God who provides.  That is who we serve.

I could spend hours telling you all about this last week, but I would rather spend that time snuggling my little girl {or sleeping}, so instead I will just share with you all the ways that the Lord has provided for our family to bring this tiny little miracle into our lives.

*At a time of great mourning for our family, God provided a source of rejoicing when we received a phone call on the way to my cousin's funeral telling us that we had been chosen by a birth mom to raise her baby girl.

*My sister {who allowed me to be in the delivery room for the arrival of both of her children} was able to come to Utah with us to help us ease into a family of four.

*We prayed for a smooth and easy delivery for our birth mom, and God provided exactly that.

*Brooke specifically prayed for a little baby {to decrease the chances of a c-section, which would have cost us more money}, and God provided a teeny, tiny, vaginally-delivered 5 pound, 7 ounce baby.

*When we realized at the wee hour of 6:15am that we were not all going to fit in one car and be able to get our luggage to the airport, one desperate phone call resulted in Brooke's husband Darren pulling into our driveway within minutes.

*Worrying that we would then not be able to fit in our rental car, God provided an unexpected and free upgrade from Enterprise to a brand new Expedition that offered us just enough space for the five of us and all our paraphernalia. 

*We randomly chose to stay at the Residence Inn, which turned out to be a wonderful home away from home, with an amazing staff that even brought us a gift for the baby... an adorable stuffed giraffe that sings lullabies.

*Part way through the week we found out that Darren had found a family in our church that owns a 7,000+ square foot luxury home in Park City that was offering for us to stay there for free, saving us about $600 in hotel fees.

There have been so many moments this week that have confirmed that Penelope is the baby that God has intended for our family... the reason that we have had to wait seven long years to meet her.

In case there was ever a doubt, let me tell you that certainly Jehovah-jirah exists.  Our God has  provided.

Penelope Susan Blakely

Wow... where to begin???

This has been such a crazy, crazy, amazing week.  After arriving home from Justin's funeral, we spent three days cleaning, painting, shopping and preparing to come to Utah to meet our baby.  The plan was for us to arrive in Utah on Thursday morning, have lunch with the birth mom and our agency reps, and then for the birth mom to check into the hospital on Friday morning at 7:00am to be induced.

Late Wednesday night as we finished packing for our 8:00am flight, we got a call from the agency.  The birth mom's water had broken and she was on her way to the hospital!

We tried so hard to sleep, but only managed about three and a half hours.  Leaving for the airport Thursday morning was the most chaotic experience we have ever had leaving for a trip.  I cannot even tell you what a disaster we left behind!!!  I didn't even make my bed. 

At 6:15am we realized that we were not all going to fit in my mom's car with the ridiculous parafenalia that we were taking along, so I frantically called Brooke's house to get another driver.  Darren was in our driveway in less than 3 minutes... thank goodness for good friends that live close!

We arrived at the airport in the nick of time, and as we checked in for our flight we received a text that our baby girl had been born.  At 8:12am our tiny, tiny, 5 pound, 7 ounce, 18 inch long little peanut was born.

We had to wait a whole day to meet her, but this afternoon we were finally introduced to our little Penelope Susan Blakely.

She is perfect.

We have had an absolutely perfect trip. {Other than trying to upload photos for this blog, everything has gone well.  I cannot get a single picture of Penelope and me to upload.  Urgh!}  God has provided in so many big and small ways, and we have gotten confirmation after confirmation that this is our special little girl and the reason we have had to wait seven years for her to join our family.  

We got to meet the birth mom today, and that was perfect too.  She is amazing, and we are eternally grateful for her strength and courage in bringing Penelope into this world.

There is so much more to tell, but I am exhausted, and I need to go to sleep so that I can wake up and go get my baby.