the story and fun details

i guess you could say the seeds had been planted. we had thought about having another baby over a year ago(fall of 2009). we tried for our standard three months and then it felt wrong again. we kicked around the idea of adoption(spring and summer of 2010) but finances did not coincide. we knew in order to proceed with that we wanted to have river's paid off and some medical bills paid off. i also was unsure i could take on another birth mother that wanted visits so we were considering international again. so we didn't proceed with anything and starting in the summer we just prayed that if something was supposed to happen it would and we put it in the Lord's hands. other than pray we hadn't done much else. then in the fall i met a lady that was staying in our vacation rental that was adoption from china. she was telling me about a tax refund that is in place for all adoptions that were finalized in 2010 or 2011. kg and i talked and decided that if a situation arose before our dept was paid off, but could be complete by 2011, we could do it. we kind of used that as our deciding factor. if an adoption happened by the end of 2011, fine. if not, we'd be perfectly happy with our two girls and be done.
we are as surprised as the rest of you as this all happened starting on december 3rd, 2010 at my work christmas party. lynnette mentioned that her friend kari(who is a tenant of mine and her daughter watches my girls sometimes) works with a girl that is pregnant and was thinking about adoption. 'we might be interested' flew out of my mouth faster than i could think and both kg and i were surprised. the next day, the 4th, kari called me at work and we discussed it. i told her i was willing to talk to the girl and even if we decided it wasn't right for us, i'd like to help her find a family for her baby. that night i talked to the girl on the phone. the conversation was so easy. when i talked to her i knew our prayers had been answered.
~~~she wants a private adoption, saving us around $12,000 which means we can somehow swing it financially. she also wants a closed adoption which is something i can work with. she is also due in early 2011 which means we can finalize in 2011. that means the baby will still be eligible for the 2010-2011 tax refund. all the concerns we had have been addressed without me even asking!~~~
we set up a meeting for the 9th. (the 9th is the day i wrote 'Tonight could be big. Real big.' as my facebook status update) kg and i met the birth mother, T, and birth father, J, for dinner. the meeting went so well. they were so easy to be with and talk to. they are both so cute. it was just easy. the birth father looks similar to kg's brother erik. at the end of the dinner i said, "you guys think about it for a couple of weeks and just give us a call". T said, "we don't need to think about it. our minds are made up." (and my favorite line of the night)-"we don't really like people but we really like you!". that made us laugh.
well they had chosen us and we felt good about it too. we are having a baby!
i called an attorney the next day and we are moving forward. :) they are meeting with the attorney on january 5th. we will start our homestudy right after that. we are doing things a little backwards it seems.

a few fun facts....

--even though we all wanted a third girl really bad(including kg), we all KNEW our third was supposed to be a boy(so we would be excited either way). We also knew that T was going to say she was having a boy, which she did. she found out the morning we had dinner with her. we are having a BOY! so far he is healthy and moving right along.

--on december 23rd we went to thai food as a family. my fortune read "remember this date in three months. an exciting event will happen" 3 months from december 23 is march 23. that is the exact due date!!! i kid you not.....we were stunned.

--we have been to portland 3 times as a married couple. we have had a child join our family within 6 months of those trips(without planning it). portland-july of 2006....flower-january of 2007. portland-august of 2008...river-november 2008. portland-november 2010...bazil-march 2011. crazy cakes? i think so. looks like it's time to stop going to portland!

--if you caught that...yes his name is bazil. bazil friese(pronounced freeze, named after kg's grandpa). bazil friese jensen. kg and i picked out three names fairly easily. after discussing for a couple of days we narrowed it down to two names. then one morning we asked river which one of the two names she liked and she said bazil every time. later that day when we picked up flower from school i asked her between the two names and she too chose bazil(without knowing what river had picked). bazil it is.

--speaking of march. when we discussed adding another baby we had hoped it would be born in march or september because in my family(my parents/siblings and their spouses/nieces/nephews) there isn't a march or september birthday! we are so excited this one is march.

so there is our happy news! we are having a baby boy in three months. yikes. i'm really nervous.
and i won't lie. we had just put the crib and diapers in the garage and i was really excited to see them go. looks like we'll be bringing them back. :)