Joshua Daniel Slade

On Tuesday, January 11, 2011, Jeremiah and I were at home playing. We were semi-snowed in. It had snowed 2-3 Sunday night, which for Griffin, is only a little shy of a blizzard! Todd came home sometime that afternoon ( a little earlier than normal) and walked up to Jeremiah and asked if he was ready for a little hispanic brother. I questioned, "Why would you ask that?" He went on to tell me that his dad had called him earlier that day and said he had received a call from the hospital in Rome wanting to know if he wanted to handle an adoption of a hispanic baby that had been born on Sunday. I will mention that I had said I wanted a hispanic little girl next (so he wasn't a girl, but I decided I could let that slide:) Oh, and we had talked about having more children, but weren't exactly seeking at this point - again the Lord blessed us in ways we did not expect or deserve. He was a healthy 2 day old baby whose mother wanted to give him up for adoption. After and couple of previous situations that fell through, his dad didn't even want to tell us about this baby until he had him and felt confident about the situation. So, he and Todd's mom dug their way out of their driveway (they had gotten more snow that us and were actually snowed in) and headed off to the hospital, hoping to make it through the snow to meet what they hoped would be their next grandchild. Todd actually called his mom while they were at the hospital and found out then, but still didn't tell me. Todd's dad talked with the birthmother and she said that she was certain she wanted to give him up for adoption. She signed the papers to legally give him up but still had 10 days to change her mind. So, Todd's parents brought him home from the hospital and he spent his first night with Mimi and Papa!! I called my boss and informed him of what was going on and that I would like to be off the next couple of months - nothing like short notice!! Fortunately, he and others that I work with were very excited and very gracious to work with me to allow that to happen. So, Wed right after lunch we headed up to Rome. Now you would think that in a large city like Atlanta the roads would have been clear from the snow storm the previous Sunday night - I mean, it had been 3 days! But, they were not. We were able to make it through but I felt like I held my breath and onto the seat as tight as I could most of the way there. We finally got there and got to see our 3 day old baby boy!! He was beautiful. We spent the night in Rome (had to get up 2 or 3 times since he was a newborn - we had missed this stage with Jeremiah) and then headed back on Thursday. My parents came down the following Saturday to meet him. We were a little anxious for the first 10 days to make sure his birthmother did not change her mind . . . and she didn't!! We decided to hold off a couple of months and adopt both boys together on the same day. So . . . on June 15, 2011, he OFFICIALLY became Joshua Daniel Slade!!