not quite over...

i love that josh posted a slew of pictures and about 1/2 dozen words. in all my wordy posts, i haven't managed one picture :)

so it's a little after 11pm. josh is snorin...i'm tired but can't sleep. is this how this goes? tired and sleepy....but when she's w/us, i can't not look at her...when she's next door w/the birthmother, i can't not think about her, listenin for her cry.

i haven't been terribly wordy today - as i'm sure few of you believe based on the verbose nature of this blog :). it's been quite a trip the last couple days....i can at least report a few things.

today has gone really well. though we wanted to be here yesterday, i think given the birthmother some space did a world of good. we hadn't been here 1/2 an hr when there was a knock at the door and in came the birth-grandmother, aunt, and the baby. the birth-grandmother was very friendly and warm and inviting....and before i knew it, handed that beautiful girl over to me. pretty sure miss priss was the only one who wasn't cryin at that point. i held her while the 4 of us talked for a few minutes and then gave her back.

a little later, we had a face to face w/the birthmother. it went well, too. durin that visit, josh held the baby for the first time. i cried again. after a few minutes, we left.

about 1ish, the birthgrandmother rolled that sweet baby into our room, told us a few things, and said, "alright. birthmother's asleep. i'm leavin for a little bit. i'll be back in a while." and out she went. we were w/the baby alone for the first time. this bein our 3rd time to look at her sweet little face, we decided on the name - much to many folks' surprise, as we had decided a while back that her name would be lyla dae. only when we saw her, she didn't look like lyla - our parents and the birthmother and her family agreed. so riley layne it is :)

we had her for a good couple of hours....long enough for the grandparents and aunt mendi to meet her. then she went back next door for the rest of the afternoon and into the evenin. they let us have her again about 8, and we took her back about an hr ago. they'll keep her through the nite.

oh...so gettin back to the title of this post :) .... although all has gone really well today, it's not quite over. since bein here, we've seen/heard/picked up on no signs of the birthmother changin her mind or wafflin. her mom's stayed w/her, which has helped, i think. tomorrow about 1:40-1:45 will be the earliest that she can legally relinquish her rights to riley and sign the papers. the social worker will be here....and the plan is for all of this to take place at that time.

so thank you - a hundred times over - to all who are prayin. we appreciate all of the concern and love.....and would be ever-so-grateful for just a little bit more over the next few hours.

alright. i really should try to sleep. might read a couple more chapters of "james and the giant peach" to wind down a little. of course, every time i close my eyes, all i can see is that sweet, precious face . . . and the head full of hair :)