Introducing Dre Vaun Bennett

What a crazy couple of weeks we've had! We found out May 21st that we had been chosen by a birthmom. She was due July 15th and we were getting a little boy! Of course we knew that it wasn't for sure, as all adoptions are that way, but we were excited and started to prepare a little! As time went on we talked with his birthmom often and got to know her a little. She is 15 and loves to play softball! Of course summer is busy and I was taking my time getting things ready for the baby, trying to spread things out so that the time would go faster! Ha little did I know he had different plans! 2 Days after I got back from bringing the twins back to Jess I got a phone call from our birthmom's mom saying they were going to do a C-section Thursday.....3 weeks early. This was a Monday. Lets just say I didn't sit down until we were in the car on Wednesday night on our way to the airport! We flew into Kansas City, landing a little after midnight. We stayed in a hotel, got up bright and early to get to the car rental place so we could drive the 3 1/2 hours down to Joplin to make it in time for the 12 o'clock C-section. We made it there at 11 just in time to get to know Takeesha (birthmom) and her mom a little before they took her in! We hung out in an empty hospital room for about 30 mins until the hospital social worker came in to tell us our little boy had been born! We rushed out to the hall and saw our sweet little guy, they weighed him, 5 lbs 6 oz, and took him into the nursery. I had the fathers hospital band so I could go into the nursery with him! They cleaned him up and put him under a heater! I chatted with the nurse and held Dre's hand! We wrapped him up and I took him to the nursery window for Tay, Eric and some of his extended birth family to see! The next couple of days were spent between holding Dre, driving around Joplin to see all the damage, visiting with Takeesha and sleeping! Dre was released on Saturday and we took him up to the Ronald McDonald House where we were staying (amazing, wonderful, awesome place!)! We visited Takeesha on Sunday before she was discharged. On Tuesday we went to court where they terminated Takeeshas right making us legal guardians! Wednesday we hung out with Takeesha for awhile before we headed up to Kansas City to wait for the interstate compact to clear so we could leave the state! We killed time swimming, shopping, going to Chuck-e-cheese (Tay's favorite) and visiting some church history sites! Finally on Friday we were cleared to go, but we stayed till Sunday since we found awesome plane tickets home! We had a 5 hour layover in Denver, so Mom and Jim came and got us and we went to Jessie's for breakfast and some playtime at the park! It was great that my family got to see him before we went home! We got into Salt Lake and headed for Eric's brothers house where they had made us dinner! Tayli got to play with her cousins and Brett, Steph and the kids got to enjoy holding Dre for a bit! We headed home from there where we were meet by Eric's parents, his brother Kevin and Eric's cousin and his wife.
Dre has been a great baby! He is so laid back and quiet, unless you unwrap him or change him! He is pretty smiley too! (its not gas either, he's just happy) Tayli has done pretty good with him! She is a bit rough and I can tell its been a little hard on her but she is great to help and she loves to hold him! I think Eric is on cloud 9 since he now has a baby boy, and I absolutely love to just sit and hold him! We are soooo grateful to have this little guy in our family and can't believe it happened so fast! I still have so many things to do to get his room ready and what not but I am working on that very slowly and making sure I hold him enough so that I don't forget how little he is. He is already a pound bigger and 2 and a half weeks old. It all goes way too fast, and we wait so long to get them! I am not sure I will ever catch up on my house again but I know I will definitely spend enough time with my kids (oh wow I just said kids....yep I have 2 now!)