I Love To Tell The Story

Hello everyone out there in blog land!  Today is a wonderful day!  Yesterday we went to court and Elizabeth Grace is officially an Ivie!  We will be getting her birth certificate with our names on it as her mom and dad!  When we were in the courtroom and the judge was looking over our paperwork and homestudy, the first thing he said was...."Ohhhhhh..  I see we have a couple of people that love Disney!"  I let him know that there was no doubt about it!  Then the judge stated that he saw only one problem.  In my mind I was thinking.......what did our attorney forget.......really.....what could be the problem.......but the judge looked at us and said, "It looks like I have two people in front of me that will probably spoil this little girl."  We looked at him and said, "Yes, sir!"   The judge asked us to raise our right hands and asked us if we are aware that we are adopting Elizatbeth Grace and that she is going to be just like our biological daughter.  The judge  asked us if we promise to take care of her.  He asked us if we were aware that we would have to provide finacially for her, provide her with a home, amd meet her needs. The judge told us that he hated tell us this but were we aware that if we divorced then we would still have to provide for her.  He stated that one parent might have sole custody if that happened,  we stated that we did! Then the judge said she is officially your daughter.  Then the judge signed the decree for adoption. Tears of joy just overflowed.  We could not believe our dream of adopting Elizabeth Grace had finally come true!!!!!  I was so emotionally overwhelemed! 

I want to end this blog with an old hymn titled "I Love to Tell The Story."  I think this sums up how we feel about our adoption journey..... Please read the lyrics!
I love to tell the story
of unseen things above,
of Jesus and his glory,
of Jesus and his love. 
I love to tell the story,
because I know 'tis true;
it satisfies my longings
as nothing else can do. 
Refrain:
I love to tell the story,
'twill be my theme in glory,
to tell the old, old story
of Jesus and his love.

I love to tell the story of Elizabeth Grace!  She was once the "unseen things above."  God was taking care of all the details when we weren't even looking.  God was working it all out.  He had the big picture.
I love to tell the story of Elizabeth Grace because this shows all of God's glory and love.  His fingerprints are all over this.
I love to tell the story of Elizabeth Grace because I know it is true.  I know God will use this story to encourage others in their belief, hope and relationship with His Son Jesus!
I love to tell the story of Elizabeth Grace because it satisfied our longing to be parents!

Just like the refrain states:  I love to tell the story,
                                         twill be my theme in glory,
                                         to tell the old, old story
                                         of Jesus and His love.

We will love to tell the story of Jesus and His love for us and Elizbeth Grace!  We hope you can pass this story on to encourage others in their faith, too!  We hope that you have a story that you can tell others about how Christ has impacted your life!  Once you realize what your story is, then you will love to tell it over and over again.  You won't want to tell it because it's about you, but because it gives God all the glory He deserves!

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow!

Wow!  What day!  Today we welcomed Elizabeth Grace Ivie into the world.  What a journey!  Words cannot express what was like when I first held her precious life in my hands.  All of these emotions just came upon me.  I have never loved someone so deeply within every inch of my being as fast as I did when she was in my hands.  All I could do is praise God for all of the things He has done for us along the way.  This was His indescribable gift that He has given to us!  I could have never imagined what it was going to feel like, even though we anticipated her arrival for so long.  God is AWESOME!

Well today was interesting to say the least.  They induced the birth mom around 8:30 this morning.  When the doctor was examining her, he broke her water.  He told her he would be back around noon to check on her.  Meanwhile, Joseph and I were in Russellville just taking our dear sweet time to make our way to the delivery because the birth mom didn't want us to be there until the very end....so that we could hold her right after she was born!  So around 10:45 we left Russellville and headed towards the delivery.  We were going to go out to eat at some nice restaurant and then pop into the hospital around 2- 3 and check on things and maybe Elizabeth Grace would make her arrival around 7 at night.  Well let me tell you that's not how it went down at all.  We were about 40 minutes away from the delivery site and we received text that asked us what our plan was for the day from the Liaison.  We told her and she responded that sounded like a good idea.  No problem......then 35 minutes away from the delivery site we get a text that says....come straight to the hospital......then 30 minutes out we get a text ....we are having a baby.  I'm like HOLY COW!!  I told Joseph put on those hazard lights and speed....we need to get there NOW!  We saw 4 cops along the way and none of them stopped us.  One turned onto the road to follow us but he never stopped us.  That was answered prayer!  Well Elizabeth Grace came into the world at 11:13 she weighed 7 pounds and 4 ounces.  She is 20 inches long.  We arrived at the hospital about 5 minutes after she was born.  The staff had just finished cleaning her up a bit and we were the first ones to hold her.  It was an event that I will never forget!

When we arrived at the hospital I received the hospital wrist band that matched Elizabeth Grace's.  We have been able to stay in the room with her today and tonight.  She has had to go under the warmer twice but then her temp goes back up and she is fine.  The scary part for me today was when the birth mom asked to see her around 5:00 tonight.  The birth mom has a wrist band that matches Elizabeth Grace's also.  She can see Elizabeth Grace anytime she wants to.  So off Elizabeth Grace went and was even held her by her birth mom.  I am amazed by this woman. The birth mom was holding EG and told her mom that she knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is doing the right thing.  She said that she has talked to God about this during all of her idle time and that this is not her baby but the baby God wanted us to have.  She looked at her mom and said I am doing the right thing and I am at peace about this.  The birth mom thought it was so cute that we already had Elizabeth Grace in a Minnie Mouse outfit.  She knew that Joseph had picked out the hat.  Once Elizabeth Grace started squirming, the birth mom told the nurse to take her back to us because Elizabeth Grace needed to go back to where she was the most comfortable and that was with her mom and dad...Kathy and Joseph.  Today after she held Elizabeth Grace, the birth mom signed off on the rest of the paper work and we will go to court on Wednesday to finalize the adoption.

All I can say is : Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
                         Praise Him all creatures here below!
                         Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts!
                         Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
                         Amen!

Welcome Home Elizabeth Grace!!!!!