You need to be sitting down

So, as we're grieving the loss of the little girl who was to be Emma but turned out to not be our daughter, God was being sneaky.  No means to be disrepectful, but the story I'm about to tell is a little creepy.  I think the churchy way to talk about this is to say God is mysterious.  But people, hold onto your hats, because God has gotten all kinds of crazy good.

SOOOOOO....we were picked again!  And this time, I can tell you now, that the biological Mom's rights are over with.  Her rights were teminated today at 5pm.  We have signed paperwork.  We are, indeed, this child's legal guardians and in about 6 months or so we are going to petition the Commonwealth of Virginia for her new birth certificate.

As a friend said, this is faster than Brad and Angelina.  Our case worker has never in her life seen something like this--that this is not normal and is kind of ridiculously gracious, even for God.  To have the mom's rights end on the same day and all.  Most people's response has been simply to say "OH MY GOSH!" a bunch of times.  Or my dear bestie Robin's response was perfect--"Oh EJ, you're life is such a movie!"  (Her saying this only confirms why we are friends.)

I'll tell more of the whole story, but to be short--MARGARET GRACE was born on October 22nd.  There have been some medical complications due to the birthmom's poor prenatal care and the like, and she has been in the NICU at UVA in Charlottesville since birth.  She is thriving!  In fact, the doctor's said they would've discharged her last week, but as of last week, she had nowhere to go.  She was 5 lbs, 13 oz and 18 inches long. 

We did not name her Emma Sloan, because well, we cannot grieve an Emma if we are raising an Emma.  But this little girl is pure GRACE to us.  And I'd go on and on about how much we love her and how we are stoked to be bringing her home from the hospital tomorrow, but let's face it.  You just want to see cute baby pictures.