Things are not always as simple as they seem...

Well... I have some news! Katie, the birth mom, had the baby on Monday, February 27th at 1:51pm. He weighed 7lb 6 1/2 oz. and was 20 inches long.

It has been a very confusing and stressful last few days!! So we got to the hospital and basically discovered that her boyfriend didn't know about the adoption. He thought he was the dad and they were keeping the baby.

So....between the lawyers, the boyfriend's family, Katie's family and us there was mass confusion and tears.

However, the good news (at least for us) is that Katie has allowed us to take the baby back to the hotel room (I'm holding him as I type this). She has until Monday to change her mind, so we are just trying to soak up this time.

Please continue to pray for Katie, her boyfriend, this baby boy and us. We are really, really enjoying this time. This little guy is definitely growing on us!!!

If all goes as planned, we should be heading back to Arkansas on Tuesday or Wednesday with this little guy. We have a few days to finalize the name, but pretty sure he's looking like a Jones Dean Geopfert!!! :)

Let's go get that baby boy....

Travis and I began to discuss how we were going to get to Richmond when the baby was born.  The cost of flights last minute were extremely expensive and the thought of putting a newborn baby on a plane kinda freaked me out.  Travis' dad came up with a great plan and it is what we did! 

This last weekend (Feb 24th, my mom's birthday) Gary, Lynda and I drove up to Lexington, KY.  The SEC indoor conference track meet was there. We were able to watch the meet Saturday night and all day Sunday.  We got to see the Razorbacks WIN the SEC conference title!!  Wooo pig sooie!  On Sunday night we headed into West Virginia and stayed for the night.  Then on Monday morning we drove rest of the way to Richmond, Virginia....actually we are staying south of Richmond in Colonial Heights.  That was a beautiful drive!!!  I can only imagine how pretty it would be in the Fall!

That brings us up to right now!  We are staying in a Candlewood Suites.  The hotel has a full kitchenette, full service laundry, and wireless internet!  All of those things will be nice for when we bring the baby here.

After the baby is born, we will need to stay here for a few days.  The paperwork for the Petition of Custody will need to be delivered and signed by the courts.  There is also paperwork that goes to the ICPC...which is (as I understand it - not the offical definition) the committee that handles state to state adoption cases, that needs to be approved before we leave Virginia.  Our lawyer said all this paperwork could take from 4 to 12 days. 

Well....that is all for now.  We are currently just watching the news and trying to figure out what to do for supper.  I will keep you posted on all the happenings here!  We keep praying that Katie has the baby this week!  We are SO anxious to meet that little guy!  :)

Maybe we need to consider adopting....

In the summer of 2011, we started exploring adoption options. After feeling completely overwhelmed with the process and decisions we decided to go through a local adoption lawyer, Gene Kelley. We started the home study process and got together a website. We learned that it would be best and quicker if we were proactive with finding our own birth mother. So we put our website on Facebook and tried to spread the news as fast as we could. 

On December 1st, we got an email from a birth mother explaining she saw our website and if we were still interested she'd like talk to us more about it. That email was amazing!!!  We must have read it 20 times!  We couldn't believe we were given this opportunity!  We emailed her back and then began texting back and forth. A few weeks later I called her. I was more nervous than going for a job interview. I hoped she'd liked me, I hoped I would ask good questions, and I hoped I'd say the right things.  The phone conversation went well. We continued to learn more about each other.

The birth mom's name is Katie, from Richmond, VA, and she is 19 years old. She is very smart and witty. Her future goals include going to college and being a history teacher. She is a hard worker.  Katie and I have a lot of common interest, including favorite music, TV shows and movies.
When Travis and I first started this process we didn't know is we were comfortable with an open adoption.  However, after getting to know Katie there was no discussion. We really respected her and liked her!  We wanted her to be apart of this baby's life. When we visited Katie in Richmond, VA on Jan 21-22, we knew she was a perfect fit!!  Travis and I left VA with the feeling of completeness!  Katie expressed she was happy that we were nicer then she thought we'd be and she was confident in her decision.

We were all smiles while flying back to Arkansas. We even started picking out names.  Later that week Katie texted to say the baby was a BOY. His due date was February 29, a leap year baby!!  We were very excited!  Then, the name picking got serious. ;)  A couple weeks later we found out she signed the papers for the adoption.

From the beginning....

It's been a journey. Here is a little bit of background to how we got to this point. Travis and I got married in August of 2002. We were excited to start our family, but really wanted to enjoy being married first. Travis was coaching Track and Field and training in the Decathlon.  I was teaching and working on my Masters. 

Then in 2006 we decided a little Geopfert would fit nicely into our family. ;)  That year went by and we had no luck. In 2007, we went a fertility doctor. That year I started clomid.  Then in Sept through feb we tried 6 IUI's...No luck.  In March of 2008, our doctor in Waterloo recommended we go to Iowa City. When we got to that appointment I was late with my period and had a pregnancy test that was positive. I can't explain the feeling of excitement!!  A couple weeks later we went for an ultrasound and saw a sac, but no baby. I had a DnC a week or so later. I'd say this was one of the lowest points in this journey.

The rest of 2008-2009 we took a break from trying to get pregnant. We enjoyed life and each other. We tried to take advantage of our time together without a baby. ;) We enjoyed visiting family and friends. And during that time we tried to just let life happen.

In the summer of 2009, Travis got a job offer at the University of Arkansas. So we packed up and moved south.  The last part of the year we started to go to the Tulsa Fertility Center and had 2 more IUI's, with no luck.

After they were not successful, we discussed in-vitro in 2010. In October/November we had our first round of in-vitro. All was looking good and we got a positive test. A couple days later the numbers dropped and it was considered a miscarriage. In December/January we tried again and had the same results. A positive test then dropped numbers, and a miscarriage.

At that point, we decided to stop all fertility treatments. I was getting really tired of all the medicine and Travis was tired of me being an emotional roller coster. ;)