Virginia meeting Virginia (her namesake)

Anna, Virginia and I went and visited with Rex and Virginia on Wednesday, it was so wonderful to see them. Well, I can't say enough good things about these two people! How could I not name her Virginia.
Rex and Virginia were my next door neighbors from the age of 5 until I married Carl at 19. There was always good advice that could be had, and good examples when I would walk across the street. When I was not quite 10 or so, Rex even took me (just me! So fun) on a fishing trip up to Pineview reservoir. It was so fun, and a memory that I cherish. We used to also go up every year to Strawberry reservoir near Park City to go fishing on opening day (we would even throw in some corn the night before...shhh), that was a trip for our whole family and a lot of Rex and Virginia's would join in on. In addition to many things I learned, one of them was the love of a big garden, it was amazing to watch them every year take care of 1/4 acre of land planted with all sorts of vegetables, berries, and grapes.

A surprise visit from Uncle Jesse

Uncle Jesse found out at the last minute that he had to go to Boise to work with Sam (Carl's other brother that works at the same company). So, instead of flying straight to Boise from Denver, he flew into Salt Lake so that he could see his new niece for a few hours on Tuesday night and drive up to Boise with Sam on Wednesday morning. It was really great to see him. Playing bloody knuckles with Anna...well not really

A week in Utah

The week in Utah waiting for the interstate compact to go through was full of fun, visits with family and friends, lunch dates, dinner dates and just hanging out with the family.

Virginia also got to take her first bath in Aunt Molly's awesome red sink.

Oh how babies love to have their hair washed....

Oh how Anna loves her baby sister

Anna loves her baby sister. Everywhere we went, she would announce, "Do you want to see my baby sister?!" to everyone. She is so willing to help with anything, she has even held her bottle for a short while and always takes her diapers to the garbage for me. Anna will always share her coveted green blanket with Virginia as well. She really does cherish Virginia.

Final meeting with Sophia

Sunday was taken up with making a trip down to Orem, from Ogden to see Sophia one more time and for her to visit with Virginia. She flew home the following morning and wanted some closure. Poppa agreed to come with me since I was going to drive 4 hours round trip with a newborn and a 2 year old. You never know what will happen, so it was great support to have him there with us. We visited with Sophia for about an hour, and on the way back stopped at Cabela's for some lunch and a little strech break. Wow that place is huge. We finally got back to Ogden at about 4:30 or so.

I am sure these photos will be treasured by Virginia someday.

Our first day together

Well, Friday night was our first night together, and Virginia did great. I snuggled her up to me close all night, partly because I wouldn't let her go and partly we were sleeping on a twin bed. She only got up 2 times that night, I was expecting to be up much more. The next day, I wanted to just stare at her and snuggle all day, and that is pretty much what we did until about 5pm when I drove down to aunt Molly's for the Westergard family party that night. There was a great surprise waiting for me at Molly's...you will never guess

A CAKE WITH BOOBS!

Carl went to high school with a girl that is a cake artist and makes all sorts of amazing things. So he special ordered this one and had it ready for the family party.

A lot of family showed up, which was wonderful! Some that I have not seen for years. I took pictures of everyone holding her. Sorry, I can't possibly post all of the pictures taken....

Great Grandma Marian (Jackie's Mom)

The Poppa (Carl's dad)

Meme (Jackie-Carl's mom)

It was really funny, Carl's cousin, Stephanie is pregnant with her 3rd boy after having twins and she said when she held Virginia, "You know I was okay with having another boy until right now." Stephanie's boys asked her after they left, will our baby come with a wrapper too? and Stephanie had to explain it wasn't a wrapper, it was a bow and they have a baby brother coming not a baby sister.

Discharge Day and the best friend EVER

The birthmom wanted to spend a lot of time with the baby in the hospital, I respected that wish of hers and stayed out of the hospital, which was tremendously difficult. When discharge day came, I had only seen Virginia for about 2 hours since she became mine. Discharge was on a Friday, and all day Thursday I spent at Karina's house working on the scrapbook that I made for the birthmom. I got a nice 8x8 book and then put together all the paper pages (about 30 pages or so), so that over time as I send her pictures she can put them in easily with just a glue stick. I loved her book so much, I made one for myself that matched after I got home.

So, I don't know why this picture won't post horizontally, but is was my favorite page of the scrapbook, so just turn your monitor on its side.

On Thursday night Karina came down to Orem with me for some moral support. It was great to have her there. On Friday, discharge was supposed to be at noon, but got pushed back to 4pm. That was very difficult to deal with and after hearing this, I told Karina that I wanted to go scream my guts out on a roller coster, go shopping, or eat massive quantities of food. So Karina and I just went shopping, again. The emotional support I got from Karina that day was invaluable.

You know when you budget for an adoption, you really have to work into it all of the shopping time, it can really add up, oh and mandatory sushi stops.

Discharge was really quick, and full of tears as the birthmom handed Virginia over to me in her hospital room. I can only imagine how difficult this was for her to go through. When she signed she said that it really hadn't entirely hit her yet, but the next day (Thursday) it really did.

When I got Virginia to the car, she was starving, so we went straight to Karina's brother's house in Orem and fed her.

We visited for a few minutes with her sister-in-law and brother then started our trek north toward Wellsville. Virginia got hungry again in West Jordan and so we stopped in a Wendy's parking lot to feed her again and change her.

Before we got to Wellsville we made one more stop at my parents house in Plain City so they could see the new grandbaby.