Day Three: Another day with Richard, Kenya and Baby

We got a good nights sleep, first one since we have been here. I am sure that our nights of good sleep will soon come to an end. We got to the hospital about 10 am and stayed until about 7:30 pm. For lunch, Richard bought us Caribbean food. Mat and Richard were going to get curry goat. They couldn't figure out if that's what they actually got, or if it was chicken. I guess there is something to be said about "it tastes and looks like chicken'. Kenya and I got jerk chicken. It was really good, but spicy. To obtain the food, they ventured off the campus of the hospital by a block into inner city life. It was quite the experience for Mat. We spent an enjoyable day with Kenya and Richard. It is amazing to me how open they both are about this whole adventure. They are wonderful people and we look forward to continuing our friendship with them. I found it interesting how many little odd things that I had in common with Kenya. She is amazing and I worry about how she will handle life when she hands over her baby. She has never wavered on her decision, but it will be very difficult for her. We pray for her often, and hope that by spending time with her, that it will put some of her concerns to rest.

So for those who are tired of words....here are some pictures.

Look at that hair!

Tiny Feet

Isn't Kenya's hair cool?

He's already giving Mat the "eye"

What is his name?

Many people have asked us what we are going to name the baby. We just wanted to let you know that we have a couple of release candidate names, but we are still doing QA. We hope to have the final release within the next 24 hours or so.

Pictures of Kenya, Richard and Baby

Kenya and Richard

Baby

Baby (with hair)


Kenya with baby

Kenya with baby

Kenya and Richard with baby

He's here!

He was born at 10:39 am. Kenya is doing as well as can be after having a c-section. He have seen the baby through the window. He is 6 lbs. 13 oz. 18 inches long. More to come.

Still Waiting...

For those of you following our adventure, here is an update. We have been at the hospital here in "Philly" for almost three and a half hours. Kenya has been waiting and starting to feel a bit frustrated with all the wait. Every doctor and nurse that comes to see her tells her something different. The hospital will only allow one visitor in with her at a time. I was able to spend about half an hour with her. Hope fully with in the next hour or so we will have news.....

Dinner with Kenya and Richard

So the next big step in this entire process was going to dinner with the birthparents. Let me be the first one to tell you how involved and nerve racking this entire process is. We met at Richard's apartment and had a good chat with him while we waited for Kenya to come.

Richard is about my height, medium skin color. He was really friendly and between him and Mat, kept the conversation going on several occasions. He is a sanitation worker, which he enjoys, he says it gives him quite the workout. He has two children. A 16 year old girl that lives with her Granmother and a 13 year old son who is also named Richard. Both Richards live together. Just a fun side note: the elder Richard has a four foot long Python.

Kenya is about 5"1'. She was rather reserved, which I can understand. Because she is so small, she really looks pregnant! Although from the back, it is hard to tell. She has worked as a CNA at a nursing home and is planning on starting nursing school in July and returning to the nursing home. She has four children, two girls that are older and no longer live at home. She also has two boys, a 12 year old and a 4 year old. She really enjoys spending time with her boys and doing lots of fun activities with them.

At dinner we gave Kenya a bag that I made that was full of goodies from Utah and a few supplies for when she starts school. She seemed to really enjoy it, and was very appreciative of the gesture.

After we left to take them back home, we all started to talk and laugh about how nervous we all were. Thank goodness that is over! It went well, despite everyone being very nervous.

Now its back to our room and an early morning to the hospital. For all of you curious minded people, we do have pictures of these wonderful people, we will post them later.

First Day in Philly

We made it on the flight from Salt Lake City (we were flying standby). The flight was rather uneventful (which is good as far as flights go). We did not get to sit next to each other, but we were only a few rows apart. As we were waiting to get on the plane I saw a guy I new from OGI (Mark Wong) and chatted with him for a few minutes. Katie had a good chat with the lady sitting next to her, who lost a 7-month old baby about a month ago.

After getting our bags and rental car, we made our way to the hotel (near the airport, but not the Airport Tower :)). It was close to 1:00am EDT by the time we got to bed, but with the time change, that wasn't to bad. The time change in the evening won't be too bad - its the mornings that are hard :).

More later ...