A Baby Boy!

Everybody keeps acting like this foster-adopt process is emotionally brutal and wondering how we can do it. It's definitely an emotional roller-coaster, but I also find some comfort in these kinds of situations where things are completely beyond your control. It's like you just let go and try to have faith that the right thing will happen -- there's really no ability to try and control the outcome.

Case in point: we felt a great deal of sadness about losing Deshon, but we also understood why it happened. Then today we received a call about a 4-day-old baby boy. We heard a few basics and we had five minutes to call the social worker back with an answer. It only took me two minutes to track Tori down and call the guy back with a big "yes." Then we drove to Pasadena and picked him up, which was really fun. He still doesn't have a name yet, but we're working on it!

This time we feel pretty confident that we'll get to keep him. Of course, being a foster parent means you never know until you work your way to the point of adoption, but we hope and think this is going to work out.

Baby Boy Kuykendall, we are very happy to have you in our home. We have been holding you non-stop since we got you and at this very moment Tori is holding you and you are doing some cute little half-asleep grins. I know everyone says babies don't smile until six weeks and it's just gas, but it sure seems like smiles. You have a big shock full of black hair, rosy cheeks, and perfect little red lips. You also have enormous feet! Best of all, you have a great temperament and have only cried when you really needed to tell us something (thank you for that!). But check back with me after our first night together -- we'll find out what kind of sleeper you are!

We feel very privileged to have you here and, in a stroke of good fortune, it just so happens that Grandma Linda was arriving tonight. She totally hogged you all night and loved holding you and talking to you.

Here's a video from when we went to pick you up at the hospital. Tori was actually the first person to hold you and rock you, but my camerawork on that video was pretty bad so I'm going to post this one. The nurse kept wanting us to handle paperwork and all we wanted to do was snuggle with you.