Hey long time, no see!

Yes, we are still here! We have seen Faith every day, but lack of sleep has caught up with us. It has also been nice to spend a little time together and not in a hospital. She is doing great and as always is beautiful in every way! Faith is doing well also :)

There is no big news to report other than her being spoiled and adorable. She has taken a strong liking to the swing they have in the hospital and is quickly becoming a nurse favorite. I think they secretly wait for Jess to walk out, so they can pick her up and snuggle. I know they won't admit it, but they love her as she is their own!

For some reason, Mommy doesn't post a whole lot of pictures of herself. She has done a good job of catching daddy and Faith both asleep, but I will get her back sooner or later!

Thank you for the continued love and support!

Love,
Jess, Randy, Faith and Joey (the cat)

P.S. We have 1 child and 1 furry child :)

I'm Three Weeks Old Today

Faith is three weeks old today and this is our 18th day with her. We can't believe how time flies and at the same time how slow it seems to go. In the blink of an eye are beautiful girl is growing so fast, but we feel like we've been living in the NICU for months not weeks. We had another great day and in celebration of being three weeks old - Faith decided to wear 3 outfits in less than three minutes. She had peed through her cute monkey outfit when we arrived, so we changed her into an outfit with frogs & turtles on it. Then while drinking a bottle for Mommy she had what we refer to as one of her major blowouts and proceeded to pee more while we had her diaper open. So we were onto outfit number three (this time a sleeper with duckies all over it). She managed to keep that one clean the rest of the day while we were there. We thought you might like to see her in all three outfits - since Mommy is constantly taking pictures of course she captured shots of them all :-) She ended her day with us by cuddling on Daddy's shoulder before we left.

She is on the steady climb to getting well and closer to the day we can bring her home! You can't even imagine how ready we are for that day! Keep those good thoughts & prayers coming!

Much Love,
The Groves

PS - The last picture is one from Friday, but we had to post it because we caught her mid yawn and thought it was too cute not to share.

A Good Weekend So Far

Hi Everyone,

We're sorry for going a day without posting. We needed a little break, but didn't want to leave you wondering for too long about how Faith was doing. She's continuing on the path of getting a little better every day so we don't really have anything new to report. She is awake more and more each day which makes for very fun visits! We continue to read books - especially since we've gotten some really great new ones in the mail recently (thank you Elizabeth and Hannah & Kurt). She loves to snuggle and is quite the social girl. There are many times when we leave her sleeping in her bassinet to take a quick break and come back to find her wide eyed and just looking around - not crying or making a peep. We love the weekends because it means both Mommy & Daddy can spend the day with her together taking turns feeding her bottles, changing her diaper and taking her temperature (which she hates by the way). You wouldn't think a little thermometer under her armpit would upset a baby, but boy does she hate when we do that.

Thanks as always for your thoughts & prayers! Sending lots of love to all!

Jess, Randy, Faith & Joey

Quick Update & Photos

Just a quick update for tonight. There isn't much to report as Faith is still doing well and continues to get a little better every day. Miss Emily, Faith's Occupational Therapist, visited her today and said her arm and shoulder look great! Next week she'll start doing exercises to build up her strength. There is still talk of moving her out of the NICU and IMC by early next week. She'll either go to the pediatric floor or another Baltimore hospital. We'll keep you posted. We thought you all would like to see a few pictures of our beautiful girl without all of her cords & wires. We are very used to them and don't even notice them any more. :-)

Much love,
Jess, Randy, Faith and Joey

We Love NICU Nurses

Faith continues to get a little better every day. We had a pretty typical day in the life of Faith today, which now includes drinking full bottles (with lots of dribbling) and taking naps. She's still in the NICU, but we're hoping they will be able to move her back to the Intermediate Unit by the weekend.

We're starting to think the nurses are just as smitten with her as we are and may not want her to leave. Mommy took a little break in the middle of the afternoon to eat a snack in the waiting room. She left Faith sleeping soundly in her bassinet. When she came back 20 minutes later - she found Nurse Nancy cuddling Faith in the rocker and about 5 other nurses cooing over her. She's a very popular girl in the NICU since she's so sweet. And while I'm thinking about it, I want to give a shout out to her amazing nurses. We now know most of them by name and those that take are of Faith on a regular basis are just like family. They are such a blessing and it is truly a calling to take care of sick babies. As hard as it is to leave her at night - it's a lot easier knowing she's in such good hands.

Thanks as always for your thoughts and prayers!

Much Love,
Jess, Randy, Faith & Joey

Another Good Day

Faith had another good day today. Mommy spent all afternoon at the hospital and Daddy came right after work. She is still in the NICU, but is eating a little more at each feeding and so far so good with all that. Fingers crossed it stays that way. She got to wear a pink t-shirt with butterflies on it today thanks to Grandma Kehler who thought she needed something other than white t-shirts to wear in the hospital. She was doing so good by the end of the afternoon that they decided to take the IV out of her head. This was the news Daddy has been waiting for. He has been patiently waiting for the day he and Faith could snuggle with her up on his shoulder. Well he got his wish tonight and they both looked as happy as could be!

Thanks to those that are keeping us fed and our house in working order. You know who you are and we couldn't do this without you!

Much Love,
Jess, Randy, Faith & Joey

Daddy gets to work from home today too...

Since I was able to get all my grades completed on Friday, I was able to spend time with two of my favorite girls. I was able to get a glimpse at the day in the life of Mommy. Jess was able to get some work done this morning, but then we packed up lunch and dinner for the day and headed into Baltimore. We made it to hospital right around 12:00, but Nurse Carol was very efficient and had already taken care of Faith for her 12:00 care.
Faith had to get a new IV location because her ankle was getting pretty puffy and they had recently taken the one out from her hand. The next location: her head! We were a little caught off guard, but knew this was routine if they had a difficult time with other locations.
Faith slept most of the day and even Daddy took a little nap with Faith. She still looked like a little princess, but this time with tape and an IV stuck to her head to create a tiara! For her 6:00 care, Faith was given food for the first time in a couple days since her belly needed to settle. She gave mommy no problems taking the 25-30 CCs and was so delighted, she fell asleep in mommy's arms with little sporadic smiles on her face.
We are hanging out tonight for her 9:00 cares to see if she took the 6:00 bottle ok, if you know what I mean!
Keep the thoughts and prayers coming!
Love,
Jess, Randy, Faith and Joey

Feeling better

Faith had a MUCH better day today! She still can't eat until at least tomorrow, but she was calmer and resting much better today than yesterday. She had a very exciting morning of finally being able to meet her Aunt Erica! We've been telling her that Aunt Erica wants to come visit, but she has to take care of sick babies at work. She finally got a day off so that she and Bobby could come for a visit. Faith was so excited she was wide awake all morning just hanging out with us. After they left she spent the afternoon sleeping while Mommy & Daddy went between watching her sleep and watching the Ravens game in the waiting room, keeping the nurses and staff up to date on the score. It was purple Sunday at the hospital. Faith even threw both of her hands up at one point on a questionable call to say "Raven's touchdown" and she was right :-) All in all a great day! Daddy got all of his end of semester grades done last week so he can "work from home - aka the hospital" tomorrow. We hope that she'll continue to get better so we might be able to try to feed her a small bottle tomorrow.

Thanks for all those prayers and good thoughts. They are definitely working!

Much love to all,
Jess, Randy, Faith & Joey

A Rough Day

Faith had a rough day today. She had to move back to the NICU - she had been in an intermediate care unit for the last 48 hours. The doctors are worried she might have an infection so they had to stop her feedings for the next 48 hours. Things are looking okay so we're hopeful that this won't last longer than the 48 hours, but her poor little belly is hungry. She had just mastered drinking a whole 2 ounce bottle yesterday so we're sad for her too. As always, she's in great hands and they are taking really good care of her. Daddy thinks either something is wrong with her belly or she's just upset about the whole JoePa situation :-) Mommy & Daddy spent the afternoon & evening trying to keep her calm and get her some sleep. When we left her a little while ago, she was sleeping peacefully with the very kind Nurse Terri taking care of her. We are hoping that she continues to sleep through out the night. Thanks to Jess's Dad we were able to stay at a hotel in Baltimore tonight and not have to make the drive home on the icy roads. We'll be heading back to the hospital bright & early tomorrow to spend the day with her.

Keep those prayers coming!

Friday's Update

On Friday, Grandma and Pop pop Chaney visited Faith and Mommy at the hospital. They also brought Mommy and Daddy lasagna and things to make yummy salads, which was a great treat! Faith was awake and alert most of the afternoon, so we were able to get some great pictures ofher checking everything out!

Of course when Daddy (aka Baby Whisperer) came in, Faith was pretty quick to fall asleep in his arms and probably would have slept through her 6:00 cares, as she had to be awaken for new diaper change, meds, blood sugar level, etc. We were happy to see Aunt Andi & Uncle Michael who stopped in for a quick visit around dinner time.

Mommy and Daddy rolled out early because of the impending weather predictions and enjoyed eating lasagna and salads, while having some adult time with the Apgars!

We are getting ready to leave for the hospital now, but please keep Faith and our families in your thoughts and prayers!

Love,

Jess, Randy, Faith and Joey

I can wear clothes now!

Faith had another awesome day today! She is quite the little fighter. All of her doctors are really proud of her progress. She still has a long way to go, but she gets a little bit better every day and that's all we can ask for. One thing we haven't told you all about yet was an injury she had to her right shoulder at birth. It's called a brachial plexus injury. Basically, the nerves in her shoulder were stretched and damaged while she was being born. So they immediately put her arm in a sling that would keep her right arm tight to her belly so she couldn't move it. That would allow the nerves to heal. She needed to keep it that way for at least 10 days so we've been working around it during her cares and letting her arm fly free when they allow us to take it off. She's moving it more and more each day and loves when we let her move it around.

Today we got great news! Her Occupational Therapist, Emily, came by and told us we can permanently take her out of the sling. Wohoo! And..the best part about no sling is that now she can wear clothes! So Mommy got to put on Faith's first t-shirt today. Look how cute she looks!

As always, thanks for the continued prayers and good thoughts. They are working!

Love,
Jess, Randy, Faith & Joey

Making Progress

My mommy is the best snuggler!

Faith continues to make progress and seems to get stronger and better at taking bottles every day! She did a great job on Monday night for Nurse Nikita and was great for Nurse Debbie during the day today. She even took a bottle of 40 CC's, the most formula she has taken from a bottle in the NICU.

Faith received her first package addressed to her here at home and it was a book from her buddies in St. Louis called, I Love You Through and Through. Mommy and Daddy plan on taking the book in when we visit Faith tomorrow. We needed a break and a little R&R so we decided to come home after eating dinner at the hospital and Faith's 6:00 care. We are hoping that not getting home at 11:30 will help us get through the day a little easier and be able to spend more time with her throughout the week.

Faith's doctor talked to us today about her "getting kicked out" of the NICU soon. She will most likely be transferred to another hospital, maybe even one closer to home as she continues to get stronger every day and make progress! We are taking one day at a time and will let everyone know once those things begin to happen. We are anxious to get her home, BUT know she is getting great care and we will have to continue to be patient until that time comes.

Thank you again for your thoughts and prayers!

Jess, Randy, Faith and Joey


I'm so intrigued by some of the things my daddy says!

Daddy Goes Back to School

Daddy went back to school today and had to bug mommy for a picture half way through the day. Faith got to meet her Uncle Kenny and Aunt Shelly today, thank you for the chili! Nurse Carol was back today taking care of Faith and her and mommy had a good conversation throughout the day. Faith must have enjoyed being with Nurse Carol too because she took the most formula from a bottle than any other time while in the NICU.

Daddy was a little sad to go back to work after spending all weekend with Faith, but made no friends driving up 95 after basketball pratice to be with her for her 6:00 care. Faith was wide awake and content, but didn't really want anything to do with the bottle, so Nurse Carol was more than happy to let Daddy hold Faith while she received her food through the tube. Mommy and Daddy were ordered (from Nurse Carol) to make sure they take time for themselves and make sure they are getting enough sleep. Point taken, but Mommy and Daddy will still remain tonight for the 9:00 care :)

Faith is looking forward to another great night with Nurse Nikita. She was given a great bath last night and smelled all nice and clean for her feeding.

Thank you everyone for your continued love and support!
Jess and Randy

Faith's First Room

We just have a quick update tonight. Daddy really wanted to write this one, but he has to go back to work tomorrow so Mommy sent him to bed. Faith had another great day. It looks like we're going to be there for a while, but she's getting a little better every day so we can't complain about that! She did have another exciting day because she was moved into her own private room just off the NICU. She likes this A LOT better and so do we. It's a little more quiet and nicer to visit and spend time with her. She had her first day of not pulling out her feeding tube (although they are using stronger tape now). She already has a fiesty personality which is good for getting herself better and home with us soon.

She got to meet her Uncle Jimmy & Aunt Charlene today and saw her Grandma Kehler again. So we had a nice day of just hanging out staring at her, holding her as much as we can, and helping to take care of her as much as they'll let us. She had another bath tonight and a had little sneezing fit in the middle of it. When she finally stopped sneezing she let out the cutest, most pathetic sigh we've ever heard. If she didn't have Daddy wrapped around her finger before she did after that. He said it was the cutuest thing he ever heard.

For those of you wondering how our little boy (aka cat) Joey is adjusting to all of this. Well - he really doesn't know how much his life is about to change. But we did bring one of Faith's blankets home with us and after putting it on his blanket on our bed - about 5 minutes later we found him laying in the middle of her blanket sleeping. So, I think even Joey is in love.

Thanks for the continued prayers and messages of support. Hearing your messages & reading your emails & texts help to keep us going. We really don't know what we would do without you all.

Lots of love,
Jess, Randy, Joey & Faith

Happy 1 Week Birthday!

Today our beautiful baby girl is one week old! Faith had a great day with many big moments. Her sugars are continuing to get better little by little and they were able to take out her umbilical IV and put in a PICC line on her poor little hand. I'm not sure who the PICC line surgery was harder on: Faith or Mommy & Daddy.

She got to meet her Great-Grandma Marino and see her Grandma Chaney & her Aunt Kelly again. She also got to spend the afternoon with her Mom Mom & Pop Pop Grove. Daddy got to change his first diaper for Faith and had much better success than Mommy did yesterday. But the best news of the day is that just before we left tonight she was upgraded from her isolette incubator to her big girl bed! She's now in her own little open bassinet, which will make it much easier for us to help with her "cares" (ie taking her temperature, changing her diaper, feeding her bottles, etc). We got to feed her, read her a book and then put her to bed before heading home. A wonderful day all around!

I also thought her 1 week birthday would be a good time to tell you all a little more about how we started our life with Faith. On December 22nd our lives were forever changed. Our amazing adoption agency, Adoptions Together, let us know that Faith's birth mother picked us! She loved our profile and the album we created to tell her about our family. Faith loved our album too. When her birth mother was reading it - Faith kept kicking her telling her she liked us too. So we received the best Christmas present ever and we were able to give our parents, siblings and family this great present as well!

We will be forever grateful to Faith's birth mother and father. Some day I hope we will get to meet them in person and that Faith will also get to know them. We would really like the chance to look them in the eye and say thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making our dream come true! I believe we all needed each other and the universe found a way to bring us together.

Keep those good thoughts and prayers coming! She is making great progress, but we have a long road still ahead of us.

Sending lots of love,
Randy, Jess & Faith

Everyone Is Excited To Meet Faith! (A Note From Aunt Andi)

Randy and Jess are so thankful for all of the emails and calls they have been getting over the past few days, providing support and love to their growing family. As Jess' last blog post mentioned, Faith will likely be in the hospital for at least another week maybe more.  We understand everyone is very excited to meet Faith, but at this time, Randy and Jess are asking that everyone respect their time alone with Faith so their new family can spend this very important time together. Once the Groves return home, and are ready for visitors, I will be working to set up a schedule for people to bring them meals and to visit for a short time.  This will help Randy and Jess focus their time and energy on that little princess.  If you are interested in providing a meal for the Groves please send me your email address at Root.Andrea@gmail.com and ensure you sign up on the schedule once I send out information about it in the coming weeks.  This will limit too many visitors on a day-to-day basis.  Thank you to everyone in advance! 

Additionally, many of you, in correspondence with Randy and Jess, have been asking what they need.  They don't want anyone to feel obligated to give gifts!  However, if you would like to get something for Faith now, giftcards to Amazon.com would be extremely helpful so they can get the baby monitor. As an alternative, for the veteran parents out there, take a look at their registry and think of what was useful to you in the very first weeks and months, those would be great gifts!  They are registered at Babies R US, Target and on Amazon. We will be having a shower for the Groves in mid-February, but of course there are many things they will need now.

Please keep praying for Randy, Jess and Faith.  They hope to be bringing her home soon and they can't wait to show her off!

Andi (a very proud aunt)

Gotcha Mommy (from Daddy's point of view)

Ok Ok, blogs aren't supposed to make you people cry everyday, so daddy is going to post this blog and add his spin on today's events! Today, Faith got to meet her Pappy Kehler, Aunt Andi, Uncle Michael, and Uncle Josh. Faith also made some great improvements in staying consistent with her blood sugar throughout the day. Other than meeting more family members, one of the biggest highlights of the day/night was when mommy was helping Nurse Lauren and Faith decided she needed to "use the facilities" and projected this towards the side of her isolette incubator and made a very big mess. Mommy learned her first lesson in "diapering". The two baby hogs, pappy and daddy, held Faith pretty much all afternoon and pappy was caught singing her to sleep.

The highlight of the night was when Nurse Carol allowed mommy to give Faith a sponge bath before her 9:00 feeding. Faith didn't like to be picked up and moved around, but now she is a clean baby. Faith fell asleep after attempting to take a bottle in daddy's arms with mommy reading "Tell Me Again About The Night I was Born". Faith has another big day tomorrow because she will be meeting her great grandmother Marino and Pop pop and Mom Mom Grove. Uncle Kenny, Aunt Shelly, Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Charlene will hopefully be visiting early next week!

Thank you for your continued support! We seldom check our phones when we are visiting Faith at the hospital, but it has been great the last couple days to check our phones while leaving and have texts and other messages. We are overwhelmed by all of your support, love, thoughts, and prayers and knowing that you are thinking of us and Faith!

P.S. Mommy will be continuing the story of how Faith came to us in upcoming posts and will be sending out more pictures in the next couple days.

Love,
Faith, Jess, and Randy

Humbled and Beyond Thankful

Hi Everyone,

First of all - we can't tell you how thankful we are to have such amazing people in our lives. We've received so many messages and emails over the last 48 hours and we absolutely love hearing from all of you. We're trying to get back to as many as people as we can, but just can't get to all of the messages right now. So please don't be offended if we don't reply. I know you all understand we are spending every second we can with Faith. Keep those messages coming - we're passing all of your good thoughts and love on to Faith. What a lukcy little family we are!

We just got home from the hospital and a great day with Faith! Daddy had to work this morning so Mommy & Grandma Kehler went to visit her in the NICU. She will be there for at least another week, but maybe longer so they can get her blood sugar under control. She has an AMAZING team of doctors & nurses that are taking great care of her. When we're there they let us help with her care, feeding, changing her diaper, taking her temperature, etc. Grandma Kehler hung out with Faith while we met with her team of doctors and nurses. Then she got to spend the afternoon with her Grandma & Pop Pop Chaney and her Aunt Kelly! She loved getting to meet everyone. We were planning to head home around 7:00 when they kicked us out for the nurse shift change, but we just weren't quite ready to leave her yet. So we came back for her 9:00 feeding and got to put her to sleep before heading home to catch some much needed z's of our own. She has another big day ahead of her tomorrow meeting her Grandpa Kehler, Aunt Andi, Uncle Michael and Uncle Josh. We can't wait for Aunt Erica to come visit too. She'll be ready for visits from the Grove side of the family by Sunday and Monday :-) Keep those prayers coming so that we can take our little girl home soon.

Any of you who know Jess know that she is taking a ridiculous amount of pictures. It's too late to load and post them tonight, but I promise we'll post more soon.

I'll leave you with a quote that a co-worker & friend shared with me today from her mother who also adopted a child:
"Not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of my bone, but still miraculously, my own.
Never think but a minute, you didn't grow under my heart, but in it."

Love,
Jess & Randy

Faith

Faith: having Faith, gaining Faith, loving Faith

When Randy & I decided to be parents we envisioned a journey and an end result. Little did we know what that journey would really be like, but we've always known what (or should I say who) the end result would be. And through it all we have always had Faith. Faith in ourselves, in each other, in the process, in the universe and humanity. All along we've had Faith.

Fast forward...

About two months ago Randy & I started thinking about baby names. After looking at many lists we were down to two boy names & two girl names. At some point, I thought of and loved the name Faith. There are many reasons why I love this name, but one of them was everything I just explained about our adoption journey to this point. So, we decided to wait until we saw the baby to decide on a name.

Fast forward again...

Our daughter is born on Sunday, January 8th (we'll fill in the details of this part of the story later for those of you that are just hearing our news), we can't wait to meet her, but have to wait until today. Our social worker was keeping us up to speed on how she was doing and during one of those calls  when we are about to hang up, I remembered I had one more question. "Does she have a name yet?" I ask. "I know we can chose her name later, but did her birth mother give her a name?" "Yes", the social worker told me, "she does have a name and I assume her birth mother picked it." "Her name is Faith."

Of course her name is Faith. And so life begins (and continues) with Faith.

Welcome to the world Faith Marie Grove. We've been waiting for you and love you more than you can ever imagine.