Hope's first bath

We gave Hope her first bath last night.  She loved it.  She stayed awake for quit awhile after.  She actually slept for 31/2 hours last night.  That was nice.  She stayed awake for almost 2 hours this afternoon.  I couldn't believe it.  She just layed next to me and wiggled and kicked and looked around.  I held her and talked to her for awhile and she got very still but never closed her eyes.
I can't believe it is Sunday.  The days seem mixed up to me.  Just staying in the hotel and taking care of Hope seems strange.  No real routine. 
We are greatful to all of our friends and neighbors who have jumped in to help us out.  We are very blessed to live in the ward that we do.  And we can't wait to get home.

Hope has the hickups.  She gets them a few time a day.  They are so big and loud.  I feel sorry for her but she doesn't seem to mind.

Something is wrong with this picture

I checked on Hope last night before I went to bed and had to take a second look.  Something is wrong with this picture....Her arm was sticking out of the neck hole on her night gown.  Size 0-3 months drowned her and she gets herself all tangled up in her clothes.  I guess it's a good thing that I brought along some premie outfits. I had a really good laugh at Loren last night,too.  He was changing a diaper and I hear,"Oh man, Hope just pee'd on me."  She got Loren and her blanket.  We have to be fast when changing her or we get get surprises.

She holds both her binky and bottle like she is protecting them.  It is cute.

The Kids are at Aunt Tina's for awhile.  We figured poor Uncle Rob needed a brea.(It is probably hard going from a single bachleors life to instant single father of five). We are hoping that all of our paper work is completed on Monday, so we can head home on Monday.  I miss my noisy kids and all that goes with them. 

We thought that Florida was humid when we arrived,  but now we know better.  It rained all day today and now we know what humid and hot are all about.

Baby Love

We are so in love with Hope, she is such a good baby.  We are starting to remember the no sleep part of having a new born. Loren and I took turns getting up with her last night.  she was up to eat every 2 hours on the dot.  Of course she took a 3 hour nap this morning. We had more parer work to fill out and some that needed to be noterized, so we took a small trip to a bank.  Hope sleep through it all.  We are still waiting on paper work to be sent and approved so that we can come home.  We talked to Susan today,  she was having a hard time.  After we told her that DCF hasn't been in anymore contact with us, she felt a lot better. 

Hope discharged from the hospital

Hope was discharged from the hospital today.  We were able to take her to the hotel with us, but there is still some red tape to get through before we can bring her home to Utah.  

The birth parents signed papers in the hospital reliquishing their parental rights.  The adoption agency representative said beforehand that it would be up to the birth parents whether we could remain in the room while that was happening.  Apparently, in some cases the birth parents can feel pressured or threatened by having the adoptive couple in the room.  They agreed to let us stay in the room, and it was really hard to keep from falling appart emotionally while we watched these two brave, loving people make this difficult decision.  The pain and grief behind it was shared by all in the room.  This is a great couple who are trying to do what is best for their child.  We will always love and respect them for that. 

Somehow, the Florida version of DCFS got involved through a "report" being made of Susan having given birth to a child.  This means that they had to send a representative to the hospital to check out the situation.  He showed up and was a bit confused, since due to the adoption placement there really wasn't anything for him to do.  However, since the report was made the DCFS agent has to give us a letter of "no interest" in the child's custody.  The paperwork to transfer legal custody of Hope from the agency to us cannot begin until we get that letter.  Being late in the week, we may not see that letter until early next week.  We'll just have to sit tight and see what happens.  We think we know who filed the report but it's probably best not to dwell on that, except to say that sometimes medical professionals are not always "professional."

We're sincerely hoping that we can bring Hope home within a few days.  More pictures: