God's Plan Revealed (and so worth the wait)

Introducing Michael Addison Richards, my son!!! Isn't he handsome?


Wow, I don't even know how to begin to tell you about today. God once again far exceeded what I imagined! Let me preface this post by saying that there are absolutely NO WORDS to explain the perfection and joy from today's match meeting...you just had to be there! I'll try my best to describe it.

I slept well last night and wasn't nervous or anxious, but peacefully calm. I did just fine during the day and then the anxiety hit in the car. Tons of questions/doubts (thanks to satan) began to flood my mind...what if she doesn't like us in person?, etc... We got there with one minute to spare and Adam grabbed my hand and said a prayer...ahhh, that was just what I needed. We walked up the path to the maternity home and right before we got to the door it opened. And there she was...the beautiful woman giving ME the most miraculous gift! She had a big smile on her face and we both just opened our arms to each other and she said, "I'm so nervous!" I said, "Oh don't be nervous" and I gave her a big hug and while we were hugging she said, "Thank you for hugging me!" I said, "Oh honey, I'm a hugger!"

So we were led upstairs to a meeting room that had a small sofa and two chairs. Adam and I sat on the couch and Victoria (from our agency) and Brandy sat in the wing back chairs facing us. I just can't describe to you the instant bond and connection we had...only God could have designed this! We talked for two solid hours. She talked about all the things in the Life book (boy am I glad I worked hard on my life book) that she liked about us and all the things we had in common. She loved the picture of the baby's room and the pictures of our home, she said I was a good decorator. I asked her what about our Life book made her decide on us, she said she knew when she looked at the first page, she said, "Oh they're just so cute!" She said God just gave her a peace about us. Victoria said that as we were walking up the path Brandy saw us and said, " Oh look, they're cute, they're just so cute!" Did y'all know we were so cute, I didn't! :)
She asked Adam about being a rocket scientist and me about being a teacher. She wanted to know how we spent holidays. She told us all about her daughter, who is 3 (will be 4 in October) and showed us pictures. Her daughter is a beautiful girl and seems to be very smart too.
We asked about the birth dad. He will not be in the picture at all, and that is fine. Brandy is from Dallas and her daughter is staying with her mom there. She gave us two sonogram pictures, as you saw above...that was such a great gift!
She also gave us two gifts that had been given to her. She takes HOPE classes and for each step she completes she is given a gift for the baby. She gave us a bath set and a hand-made diaper/wipe carrier. She said the big gift will come after the third step which is a bath tub full of goodies! I felt so bad taking these gifts and not having anything to give her. She is such a sweetheart ~ I just love her!

She wants us to be involved with the remainder of her pregnancy and with the hospital experience ~ I am so thankful! We will go with her to her next appointment on July 8 and the maternity home has given us permission to take her out to brunch after wards. She wants us and our extended family to be at the hospital when Michael is born.

Brandy told us that she doesn't want us to worry about her changing her mind because she said, "I'm not going to." She started crying and said, "Right now I can't even take care of my daughter so there's no way I can take care of this baby boy too." I have to tell you that I was very impressed by Brandy. She seems very bright, compassionate and "with it." She has a good head on her shoulders.

OK, here is the coolest part. Adam and I had decided on Michael Addison as our #1 pick for a name, but we decided to let Brandy have input on the middle name. By the way, Addison means, "son of Adam." We thought "Brandon" was as close as we could get to "Brandy" and this would be a way of honoring her...Michael Brandon. We also decided whatever name she may have picked out could be the middle name as well. So, she asked us if we had a name picked out and we said, "yes, we really like Michael." She said she liked Michael a lot. We asked her what name she liked, and she said, "Jacob." My first thought was, "whew, I'm glad I like it!" So we told her we had three options:
1. Michael Jacob ~ she liked that
2. Michael Brandon ~ we explained that this was a way of honoring her and she really liked it and I thought she was going to cry
3. Michael Addison ~ oh my goodness I thought she was going to jump out of her chair. she screamed and said, "Addison, it has to be Addison, oh my gosh I can't believe it, Addison!" Then she cried and laughed all at the same time. She has been talking about the name Addison her whole pregnancy. So not only is God blessing us with a baby boy, but He is giving us the name we want too! How cool is God?!?!?? When we were finished meeting we went downstairs and she told everybody about the name, she was so excited.

We hugged many times and we all had such a peaceful confirmation. Adam asked if he could lead us in prayer. Can I just say how much I love my husband!!! He led us in a beautiful prayer of thanksgiving and protection over Brandy and Michael.

As we were heading out Adam said something about telling people and Brandy said, "YES, tell the world!" Victoria walked out with us and she said, "well, this is one of the few match meetings that I've walked away from and knew I didn't have to worry about anything ~ this adoption is going to happen!" Yippee!

Well, that's it in a very BRIEF nutshell. I'm sure I'll probably remember things and add them as I remember. Please join us in praying for Michael. He seems to be doing just great. He is very active and kicking a lot. All doctor's visits have been good. The concern is that Brandy was on anti-depressants during her first trimester before she knew she was pregnant, one that could cause birth defects. As soon as the pregnancy was confirmed she was taken off this drug and put on a safe one. So far everything seems great and the doctor thinks all is well. We know God has his hand on Michael and we trust in His plan and Sovereignty. He has been so faithful and good!!