Introducing Baby Grace

OK, I know this a quick post since the last one, but feast your eyes on the most precious little girl Grace.

I got a call at around 11:30 AM on Tuesday August 21st from Suzanne our social worker at Bethany. She had just received a call from the Gwinnett County DFCS office that she didn't have a lot of information yet, but there is a baby girl born pre-mature and did she know of a couple looking to foster to adopt. Since the case was so new, they didn't really have all the information. I called Michael and my heart had already said YES, what an answer to prayer!! Within hours Michael and I were at Gwinnett Medical Center (a mere 10 miles from our house) meeting little Grace. If you know Atlanta, there are many hospitals and this one is the closest to our house, how lucky are we! When I say Little Grace, I mean little......she was born at 31 weeks and she weighed 3 lbs. 4.5 ounces. She is being fed with a feeding tube until she is old enough to take a bottle. Right now developmentally she can't work the suck, swallow, and breathe thing all at once to take a bottle. She is breathing on her own, and the nurses say she is doing great. Her due date was 10/13/07 so they will use that as the latest date that she would be able to come home. But, as soon as she puts on more weight....and can maintain it, can keep her body temp constant, and can take a bottle they can release her earlier. We are thinking 1 month at the earliest to 2 months max.

When the birth mother checked out of the hospital, she said she didn’t think she wanted to parent. DFCS has tried to follow up with her now that she is in DFCS custody, the birth mother gave a bogus phone number and a non-existent address to the hospital, and the they cannot locate her at this point. They will continue to try and locate her, the birth father and any family members that are out there.

Best case scenario is that both parents terminate, family declines, and we adopt her......sounds easy, but it is probably over a year before we would be able to finalize the adoption even if everything sounds easy. So either way, in the mean time we would be her foster parents until all the kinks are worked out.

Everyone wants to know what they can do, and we are so grateful to everyone and their generosity. We have a crib, dresser, and changing table we are borrowing from friends. DFCS will provide a car seat. We have been offered lots of hand-me-down clothes and other things that we will need that friends aren't using any more. Then there are loads of diapers and formula that we will need. We will probably wait a couple of weeks, to see how things play out as more information gets revealed. Either way we would still foster since they would want a stable environment and any family or parents would have to be researched before they would turn her over. So hold tight and we will register and let you know what we need most. We are so blessed by our families back up north and our Georgia family, it is truly amazing!

So keep checking and we will post pictures and more updates.......

Thank you for your love and prayers, we are so grateful for all of you! Michael & Jodi