Really and truly bringing Ivey home

To say the last 11 days have been a whirlwind is an understatement. Last Tuesday (after feeling like maybe our agency knew our birth mom and Ivey might be coming later this year) my mom and I went to buy buy baby to buy some Ivey essentials. We had a beautiful day - one I will never forget. My mom and I both said we felt like for the first time Ivey really was coming home soon. I had been texting with Susan at the agency all day and she kept wanting to know if i got home safely. When I let her know I had arrived home - we got the call. Susan asked if Corey was home and asked to be put on speaker phone. This was it. The call. Susan started reading a text from iveys birth mom that said she could come get Ivey "honey bee" (nicknamed by Susan after watching the secret life of bees in the hospital room). Susan then said the words we would never forget "I am holding your daughter, you can come get her" I thought i was going to pass out. Susan said we might want to get a good nights rest and head to Birmingham in the morning. We asked for photos and this was our first view of our 5 day old daughter.

Meet Ivey Mariposa Weldon

Ivey - named after her great, great grandmother

Mariposa - meaning butterfly in Spanish - named after our beautiful friend Laura who we lost unexpectedly almost 3 years ago. Laura left quite an impression on our life - and even gave me my 2 godchildren. We all see butterflies since she passed and we wanted our daughter to always know about her. 

Born 6/6/13 In the beautiful city of Birmingham, Alabama 

7 lbs 6.7 oz

20 and 3/4 inches long

After shuffling around the house trying to do some quick cleaning and oh yeah get some sleep we left Wednesday morning. Arriving in Birmingham with schnauzers in tow we are first greeting by our awesome friend Amanda (who found me on Instagram and told us about family adoption services- more on this special soul later) she filmed us walking in and meeting our daughter for the first time. We will have video and photos to share later. 

Laying eyes on Ivey for the first time erased the last 9 years. All of this wait was for her. She is the most beautiful thing we have ever seen. 

Here she is with her aunt Amanda 

Our amazing friend and half of the Rick and Susan team from family adoption services. Susan and Rick kept our beautiful girl in their home until she was ready for us. Susan even got to see Ivey born. I will write way more about these two soon!!

We just sat in amazement and watched our daughter who had been surrounded by love from the moment she was born. It all felt surreal.....

But she is ours. 

Will come back soon for the rest of the story. Feeling very blessed. Corey and I are so lucky. 

We love each of you. 

And many more photos to come. You might stop following me on Instagram and Facebook lol