Day One Hundred and Nineteen: The Story of Jude

Happy 2 Weeks, Little Buddy! He has brought more joy into our life than we could ever imagine.

Here is the story of Jude: My husband is an attorney. He is FaceBook friends with a guy he went to law school with. That guy (we will call him Bob) sent my husband a message stating that he knew of a birthmom that hadn't found the right family. There was a family she was seriously thinking about, but they already had biological children, and she was unsure about her son going into that family being the adopted child. Bob talked to her and told her about this couple he knew and how they were dying to be parents, and how the previous birthmother scammed them, etc... Since Bob could also tell her personal stories about us, and reassure her we were good people, she felt a since of calm and was very interested.

Bob messaged my husband, and asked him if we were still interested in adoption. Z messaged back and said that we were, but just not sure that right now was the right time, and we were still pretty fragile. Bob told Z to get a book together and get it to him, so the birthmother could look at it. Panicked, I called Chelsey (since she has experience with books)and she (of course) was more than willing to help. She came over that night and we worked really hard on getting the book done. At about 11pm, Z got a call from Bob saying that the birthmother had looked us up on FaceBook and that she didn't need a book, she knew we were the couple for her. Now, I am saying that it was my husbands love of the Boston Red Sox that sealed the deal, but we will never know. (Birthmom is a big Red Sox fan) :) So, Bob calls us and says, "are you in"? Z and I talked about it, and talked about it, and talked about it until we just decided we would rather live with heartache and disappointment than regret and said yes. That is when we found out that Jude was going to be a Jude and that his date of arrival was 4/19! WHAT? That was in less than 2 weeks!

Needless to say, Z had to start turning that pink room into a blue room ASAP! So, on April 13th, after the Ogle's gender reveal party, there were tornadoes. In fact, at 3am the sirens went off and there was a touchdown about a mile from our house. I was so startled (I hate night tornadoes) that I could not sleep again. At 7:30am, my cell phone rang. I knew it was my mother-in-law making sure we were ok (DEBBY- if you are reading this, I am still shocked you didn't call) because she is on top of it when it comes to bad weather. Anyway, it was Bob telling us that our birthmother was in labor and we needed to get there ASAP! PANICKED, I woke Z up and jumped in the shower. I packed what I thought was an appropriate bag, called my mother and told her to come over and get my dog, and we ran out the door. The hospital where she was giving birth is about an hour away from us. Time was of the essence.

So, here we are at the hospital (which the staff was fantastic, by the way) in our own room, just hanging out. Nobody except for my mother knew we were at the hospital, and she didn't even know which one. See, our birthmother wants complete anonymity and we promised her we would support that decision. Therefore, nobody knows where, when, how, where she lives, etc. Ok, so back to the story.... As I mentioned before my mother-in-law is on top of the weather. She was texting me all day to see what our storm plan was, because the weathermen were expecting severe tornadoes all weekend. I kept asking my husband if I could tell her, but he said no. Deb is really sweet and kind, and we didn't want her to be put in a position where if someone asked her what was going on, she would have to lie. Well, and to be perfectly honest, she's not a very good liar... Which is a wonderful quality to have. Finally, I said to Z, "You have to tell your mother... this is just wrong." So he did, and swore her to secrecy.

The minutes were ticking by as if they were seconds. At about 7pm, YES! Almost 11 hours later! the nurse came in and said she was about ready. Long story short, our son was brought into our room only about 3 minutes after he was born and he hung with us until he was discharged. The birthmother was allowed to go home before us, because he was having issues with his hearing. (All is fine now, just 1/2 user error and 1/2 fluid) So, we called our family and told them they could come visit, but they had to SWEAR ON THEIR LIFE that they would not tell anyone where we were. Sounds bizarre, but for those who do not know Oklahoma, it is SMALL. I am involved in the community a lot, Z is an attorney, my grandfather was a US Senator, etc... It is highly likely that we will know someone who knows someone, etc.. and we didn't want to compromise our promise to the birthmother. As I am saying this, one of Jude's nurses when to high school with me... See! Told you it was small!

So, that is the story of how we got our little man, and if everything goes as planned, this week the birthmother will terminate her rights, and then have a 30 day window to contest. She can only contest for serious reasons like duress, fraud, etc. If we can just get through her court date this week, I think it is smooth sailing!

Now, the story of Jude's name. Well, the middle name is easy. Thomas is my maiden name, where my mother-in-law is from, and Z's maternal great-grandfather's middle name. Thomas is important on both sides of our family, so Thomas had to be in there. Now, with the last adoption, before we knew if it was a boy or girl, we had decided on 1 of 2 names for a boy. Cohen or Benjamin. (No we are not Jewish) So, we were sitting around, I believe on the night of April 12th discussing names. Jude came up. Yes, it is true I love the Beatles, but that isn't why he is Jude. :) Well, his "theme" of his nursery is "All You Need is Love" but again, nothing to do with Jude. Jude means "to give thanks and praise". Fitting right? Well, if that wasn't enough, St. Jude is the Catholic patron saint of of lost causes. His medal is worn to give guidance and comfort when all seems lost and life is at its darkest hour.

OMG! Can you hit home anymore than that? We were at our darkest hour when the news of Jude came. Praise God. He is our miracle!