I'm a dad !!!!!

[GasSavers_BEEF]

as many of you may know, I have been talking about becoming a dad pretty soon. well, on sunday morning my daughter was born at 5:13 am. I have had limited internet since then and have had limited sleep as well. she was a little small at 5 lbs. and 18 1/2 inches long. she went full term (well, one day early) she still came with a C-section.

just to let everyone know. my wife and I could not have children of our own. this one is adopted so my wife is fine. also, the birth mother is fine as well. she actually went home before the child because she was doing so well. we have a good relationship with the birth mother so everything is moving as smoothely as can be expected. we plan to go home from the hospital tomorrow morning. also, north carolina law states that the mother has 7 days to change her mind about giving up her rights and she couldn't give up her rights until the child was born. I told my wife that this will be a week of pins and needles. quite a bit of holding my breath. I will breathe much easier next monday when all is finalized and she is truely ours.

for those of you that pray, keep us in your prayers. for those of you that don't, keep us in your thoughts.

[theholycow]

Congratulations!

I hope she gets to stay with you.

[Mayhim]

Congratulations! I hope everything turns out well for you.

Daughter and I got Dad/Daughter tattoos last weekend. Definitely a bonding experience.

[GasSavers_BEEF]

we have a document that gives us joint custody until the 7 day period is over so we have physical custody of her right now.

we came home today and all is doing well. the mothe seemed fine with the entire thing and actually gave her our name (the one we picked out and even our last name) we still have to get another birth certificate because it has her as being the mother and the father as unknown (that was an ordeal within itself). so far so good. she is going to the pediatrician today at 2.

5 days left...I am doing the count down

[thisisntjared]

AWESOME!!! congrats!

its really good that you have physical custody of her now. excellent time for the early bonding stages.

[aalb1]

Hey congrats man... it truly is an amazing experience stepping into fatherhood. I feel so unsure about a lot of things in my life -- unsure about my "5 year plan," unsure about my career, unsure about what geographic location I want to settle down in -- but the only thing I am sure about is that I want to have more kids! Congrats!

My wife and I would want to adopt too. It's just a matter of me "keeping it in the bag" and trusting in God to provide the adoption funds. We're still paying off the medical bills from our first kid @ 0% interest!!!

It is my opinion hypermilers make better parents too. I think the patience needed to hypermile translates to the patience needed to raise children

[GasSavers_BEEF]

we got lucky with the cost of the adoption.

we checked on adoption and it was unbelievably expensive so we looked into foster parenting. during the foster parenting process (classes and such) we were approached by our pastor. he was counseling a woman that was going to give up her child. since it wasn't a "traditional" adoption with an agency and all, we were only responsible for lawyer fees and a home study. that was significantly cheaper than a regular adoption.

we checked into regular adoption and the first one we checked with was 30k and the cheapest was 12k but was based on income and we made more than the minimum so it was still going to be substantial. it is a funny thing, if you can barely afford to live, you get a better rate for adoption. none of those options were good for me as I don't have loads of money laying around and most want payment in advance.

[bowtieguy]

congrats! i will be praying.

a must read for you both is Charles(Chuck)Swindoll's PARENTING, FROM SURVIVING TO THRIVING.

it's a no nonsense, "no parent is perfect" point of view w/ biblical priciples applied. and very funny as well!

[GasSavers_BEEF]

small update,

the birth mother did not contest so she has no more rights to the child. now we can go through the adoption process. we have been told that it could take up to 6 weeks to complete but our lawyer seems to think it will go much faster and smoother than that.

I hope he is right. also, my daughter is doing well and is healthy.

[thisisntjared]

awesome man!! good stuff!!