Keeping in Touch and Ms. Hollie's arrival

When we left Idaho Hollie was due in 3 weeks. Let me say, that was a long time. The weeks felt long and the days felt longer. We were able to keep in touch with Amanda through email and it was great! She gave us continual updates and it was wonderful hearing from her. I was able to put a "care" package together for her for when she went into labor. I enjoyed doing that for her and finding everything she would need for the hospital. The best part about it, for me, was that I was able to go into Motherhood and get her a few compfy outfits and jammies. I know that may sound funny, but I have always wanted to shop in that store. We sent our package off and she received it before she went into labor. The closer that date came the more email contact we had. She ended up not going into labor on her due date and was a week late. Thank goodness she wasn't induced and Ms. Hollie came on her own.
Ryan and I were trying to figure out a time to fly out and having it be conference weekend we choose to fly out Wednesday evening, because we were flying into Salt Lake City. It was all perfect. At 6:30 Thursday morning we received a phone call from her case worker that Hollie was born at 6:02 that morning, March 30, 2006. We were thrilled!!! We couldn't believe she was here, it felt like an eternity and then all of a sudden it happened; our daughter had arrived and she was perfect and healthy. Amanda labored most the night and was very tired. She asked to have the day to herself and we were in full support of that. We went and did some last minute shopping and visited with our family we were staying with. Sleeping Thursday night was impossible. There were so many feelings running through us, our stomach's were in nots, emotions were high and excitement was all there. We couldn't believe that our dream was coming true and that we were going to be parents to this beautiful baby girl....we felt SO lucky.
Friday we were able to meet our beautiful daughter. We went up to Amanda's room and she looked great! There was our beautiful baby girl in her arms, I couldn't believe my eyes. She was the most beautiful thing we have ever seen. She was SO perfect. Tears filled my eyes and I tried to contain my emotions. Amanda placed her in my arms and I just couldn't take my eyes off of her....gorgeous was all I could think. We talked and visited with Amanda for awhile. She seemed to be doing great. We expressed to her, again, our LOVE we have for her, but like I said before, it just can't be expressed, it's bubbling over. We asked if there was anything we could do for her and she said no. She decided to stay in the hospital another night and then we would get to see her again Saturday. Our drive back home was full of excitement, anxiety and LOVE. I was so emotional. I couldn't believe what this beautiful woman, mother, was doing for her child. It was amazing to me to watch her and see the love she has for Hollie. There are no words to describe that either. It was amazing to be the adoptive mother and to see how all this was taking place.