The Placement

The day after Carter was born, Brad and I woke up pretty early in the hotel. We got our bags packed and finished putting together our gift basket for Courtney and writing letters to her.
We were anxious to get back to the hospital so we grabbed a quick breakfast and were at the hospital by 8:00.
Once we were there we brought Carter in from the nursery and chatted some more with Courtney and her mom. Among the things we talked about were the relationship we will have in our open adoption and how we each hope things would continue. It was such a blessing and comfort to discover how much we were all on the same page with our expectations and hopes through this process. We continued to chat as we waited for Courtney's case worker to arrive.

It was such a bitter-sweet morning, thinking about how excited we were to be able to take Carter home with us, but how hard we knew it would be for Courtney to sacrifice so much for us and for Carter. Once the case worker arrived we were asked to leave the room so he could talk to her about her decision and make sure that it was the choice she wanted to make. She then worked through all of her paper work and signed everything she needed to. Afterwards we chatted for a minute between transitions and then Brad and I went into the room with the case worker. He reviewed all of the paperwork with us (we were asked to read over all of it carefully, beforehand so the process would be quicker) and we signed everything we needed to sign: accepting the placement of Carter as temporary caretakers until the adoption is finalized, etc. After everything was signed and done, the caseworker was on his way and we had more time with Courtney.
Once everything was done, she came back into the room and we hugged and exchanged how it went for each of us. At that point, Courtney had been discharged and they were in the process of discharging Carter. While we were waiting, we shared our gift basket and letters with Courtney. This was one of the most emotional moments of the weekend. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to express our love and appreciation through a "morsel" of a gift, compared to what we had been given. Although, I must say, it was SO HARD trying to decide what to give her. What on Earth do you give someone that has given you something that has brought you the greatest happiness you could ever imagine?!?

everything in this basket has more significance than it appears

Afterwards, Courtney picked out an outfit for Carter to wear home and she changed him into it. It was so sweet watching her take care of him and be so sweet and tender to him. At that point he had been discharged and the nurses helped us take everything out to the car. They spoiled us with LOADS of formula and diapers! After that we snapped a few pictures and Courtney invited us over to a luncheon with her extended family (one of her cousins was baptized that morning).

 

We said our "see you soon's" to Courtney and her mom so they could get cleaned up before heading over to the luncheon and we took our time loading up Carter and getting a safety check done with his new car seat.

We headed over to the luncheon and enjoyed some yummy food with everyone that loves Miss Courtney and Carter so very much. They were all so sweet to Courtney and it was quite emotional watching everyone offer their love and support to her. After a bit - we felt like it was time to get on the road and Courtney was ready to head home for some sleep. Courtney and her mom took us to the store and picked out a baby swing for Carter as a gift from their family and we are so grateful for it - it was always Carter's favorite place to sleep. Afterwards, we said our goodbyes in the parking lot, crying our hearts out and we were on our way.

in his new swing