We are excited to announce the birth of our daughter, Stella Payne, on November 21st, 2008 at 12:44am. She was 4 weeks early, but still weighed in at a whopping 5 lbs, 4 oz and left the hospital in our arms a couple of days later. Her birthmother had a delivery so fast it might go down in history, so we unfortunately missed the main event as we we sped along I-80 towards the hospital. No worries though, we arrived an hour later to find a healthy baby and her amazing birthmother doing well and looking beautiful.
So some might wonder why the big secret. Well, unfortunately the adoption stuff has not gone as smoothly as we all had hoped, but we are still working hard at this and hope that Stella will be declared a part of our forever family and be our "official" daughter in the near future. It's too soon to tell, and that's tough for everyone, but we just couldn't hold back our joy any longer. In the meantime, we are celebrating every moment we have together. We all love Stella so very much, and being the parents to two great kids is a blessing.
Big Brother Will has been a champ and loves his little sister very very much. Too many kisses to count, and he's even sharing his toys. What a guy! In addition, he's decided that since he's the big kid on campus, he's done with diapers. Noone is more thankful than me!
Stella's last 8 weeks have been so well documented, and at some point I will post the whole beautiful birth story of how we met her birthmother and her family. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy seeing a few pics of her doing her thing as a new member of our family. She's up to her fightin' weight by now, with an update to come from the doctor later this week.
Yours,
Ann, Chris, Will and Stella
and Stanley too
