**Don't worry, the pictures we promised are in the post just below this!**
I thought while we had a spare moment tonight I would post the whole story of how we got here.
We literally packed and got things ready until it was time to go to the airport. We were on the first flight to Utah, which went from Detroit to Phoenix, then an hour layover, then from Phoenix to Salt Lake City. When we got there, we ran to baggage, then to the car rental place. We called the case worker, and she left the delivery room to tell us that the baby had just been born and to come right to the hospital!
Luckily it was only about 15 minutes from the airport to the hospital. The case worker met us in the hall and brought us in to introduce us to Kapri and the baby. She looked tired, but really good for having just given birth! She smiled at us and handed me the baby. We talked for a few minutes and Eric and I took turns holding her, then she had to go to the nursery because she was cold and they wanted to warm her up a little. Eric went to get food for everyone because none of us had eaten all day, and Kapri and I talked. She's very nice and easy to talk to, and beautiful! She told us she was a model when she was a teenager, and is planning to go to college for fashion design. We learned that she is 22, has a 4 year old daughter who is staying in South Caroline with her mom, and a little boy who is a year and a half, who she brought with her. We haven't met him yet, he is staying with one of the social workers while she is in the hospital. She has a big family and they're very close. We'll be going to meet them sometime this summer, and again in October when we go to visit Aunt Chris and Uncle Howard at their Myrtle Beach condo. At some point we'll have her up to Michigan to meet everyone as well.
Kapri is staying in Utah until Tuesday, so we got a room in the same hotel she'll be staying at so we can all bond a little more before she goes. My parents and Janelle and Ryan are flying in for the weekend to meet her, and Kapri had the idea to all go out to dinner together and get some family pictures. Then we're one-houring the pictures and putting them in a really cute photo album we bought her, with the rest of the pages blank so she can add more pictures as we send them once we go home (but she doesn't know that yet!). We also got 2 identical teddy bears, one for her and one for us, and we're going to take a picture of Jenavieve with the bear every month and send it to her (she doesn't know that yet either).
As we talked and spent time together, she asked what names we had thought of. We told her the couple we had in mind and asked if she wanted to give a second middle name to the baby, something special from her. She liked the idea and spent a lot of time thinking about it.
Today we slept in a little, although we did have a lot of excited calls and text messages somewhat early. We showered and went down for breakfast. They have a machine that dispenses waffle batter and a waffle iron that you pour it into! Kapri hadn't gotten much sleep so she planned on just sleeping in and relaxing for the morning. We took the spare time and went to Babys R Us to get a carseat and a few other baby things. All the stuff we brought with us was 0-3 months and since she's so itty bitty, nothing we brought will fit her, so we bought some even tinier onesies and pants and little fuzzy socks. And a couple of pink things that we couldn't resist because thats what happens when you have a girl! While we were there, Kapri called and asked us to come back up. We stopped to pick up some lunch for her and then spent some time hanging out with her and holding the baby.
After spending more time with the baby, we decided she definitely looked like a Jenavieve, and decided on Ruth as her first middle name because its my mom's middle name and Eric and I each have a Grandma Ruth. We came up with Kapri because her 4 year old's name, I don't know how to spell it but it sounds like Kaprija, after her, so we all thought it would be nice to have a K name so that Jenavieve would share a K with her birthmom and sister. After thinking for a long time I asked what she thought about using Kapri. She said she had thought about that, and asked me to write the full name out for her. I did and she really liked the sound of it. It was really nice to talk about it together and come up with something that we all liked. Its a mouthful of a name but a meaningful one. Jenavieve is a name that I picked as a child, and Eric and I both love, Ruth comes from her grandma and great grandmas, and Kapri from her birthmom.
We couldn't stay long because a social worker was coming to talk to Kapri about the papers and help her fill out all the paper work. It was a long couple of hours for us waiting to get the call, even though she seemed very sure in her decision, that signature made everything official, but we finally got the call that everything was signed, and spent the next couple of hours making phone calls and sending emails.
We haven't talked to Kapri since the signing, but the caseworker she did really well, and we will go up tomorrow around noon to fill out our side of the paperwork and then discharge Jenavieve!
And since you hung in there for such a long post, I will reward you with a bonus picture of our little Jenavieve! Kapri bought this outfit for her and even though she's swimming in it, its adorable!
Jabari the baby Giraffe
