What's in a Name, Part II

In some of our early marriage talks about baby names, both Dave & I discovered that we loved the name Isaac. Of course, when we picked the name Isaac for our firstborn son, we had no idea of the journey that was ahead of us as we sought to grow our family. Once we decided to adopt, were matched with our birthmom, and found out that Baby Rinn was a boy, the name Isaac took on an even greater meaning to us.

In the Old Testament, Abraham and Sarah named their long-awaited son "Isaac" because it means "he laughs" or "he will laugh." Sarah laughed at God when she heard that God had promised she and Abraham a son in their old age. After her Isaac's birth, she said

"God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me." (Genesis 21:6)

Throughout our struggle with infertility, I was hurting so badly, and I wasn't seeing God's goodness through our pain. We yearned for the sound of a child's laughter in our family...so, the main reason that we love the name Isaac is that we knew this sweet boy would bring that long-awaited laughter!

Obviously, we had no idea of the story that our little Isaac was going to have. As we left the hospital without our Isaac on Sunday, October 18, we sat in the parking lot & called our parents, who were all weeping right along with us. During those terrible hours of waiting to find out what was going to happen that afternoon, God had reminded Dave of the story of Abraham & Isaac. As Abraham was walking up the mountain to sacrifice, Isaac asked, "Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham replied, "God Himself will provide." Another of our dear friends put it this way: That even while Abraham and Isaac were walking up one side of the mountain, God's provision (the ram) was walking up the other side. Though Abraham could not see the ram, he had faith that God would provide for him. Even in the pain of coming home without Isaac, we believed that God Himself would provide for us...and little did we know how incredible His provision would be!

Since I love names so much, I am always asking my grandparents about the history of their extended family members' names. While talking with my Grandma Joan awhile ago, she shared that her grandfather was named Isaac...immediately my ears perked up and I started taking notes. Isaac Theodore Edman was my Grandma Joan's paternal grandfather, which makes him my great-great-grandfather. Isaac Edman immigrated to America from Sweden. While we had already chosen the name Isaac for our firstborn son, we think it's extra special that his name has a link to our family's heritage.

We chose "David" as Isaac's middle name based on Rinn family tradition. The firstborn son in each Rinn family has his father's name as his middle name.

Isaac's great-great-grandpa--Roy Nelson Rinn
Isaac's great-grandpa--Benjamin Roy Rinn
Isaac's grandpa--Timothy Benjamin Rinn,
Isaac's dad--David Timothy Rinn

As far as we could tell in our research on the Rinn family geneology, Great-great-grandpa Roy seems to be the first Rinn who gave his firstborn son his first name as a middle name. But still, that's a tradition that's lasted 4 generations so far, and so it's noe one that we wanted to break!

So...needless to say, we had our own ideas on why we picked the name Isaac, but God had a far greater plan for this sweet baby boy's name! We are still in awe that God brought our Isaac home to us!

Our last update on Isaac for now....

This evening we talked to one of the ladies at our Texas adoption agency. She had just received a text from our birthfather saying that he & our birthmom had made a final decision to keep the baby. Even though this is heartwrenching for us to hear (again), there is relief in having a completely closed door. It has been very hard to have this whole situation hang in the balance, as it has been since last Thursday.

Last spring, we decided to adopt because God showed us that we were to grow our family through adoption. Even though this entire experience has been (and continues to be) very difficult, we still desire to adopt a baby into our family. We know that we will never be able to replace the love we had for this baby, and we know that our next baby will be a completely new child to love.

Our profile, which prospective birthmoms are able to view, will go live online tomorrow morning. Of course, there is no guarantee as to when we will be picked...but we find comfort in knowing that God already knows when we will receive a call about another baby.

We are still asking you to pray for blessing on the lives of Isaac & our birthparents and for continued peace & healing in our lives.

To our precious family and friends...

We wanted to share the story of what occurred at the hospital this past weekend, but please understand that our point in writing this is for you to better understand our hearts & know how to best pray for us and this baby boy. We know that our Heavenly Father, who loves this baby far more than even we do, has always held him in His care even before, during and after He graciously allowed us to hold him for a while. We named him Isaac David, and though we don't know if he has been renamed or not, God knows whom you are praying for when you lift this baby boy up to God. We also want you to know that this is not the whole story. Even while everything was unraveling at the hospital, we felt a strong sense that God is not finished with our journey yet. To be sure, the first part is heartwrenching...but we are believing God to finish this story in a mighty way.

Our birthmom called a little before 6:00 on Friday morning to say that she was headed to the hospital. I (Bethany) refused to let myself be disappointed that it might not be true labor, so I headed over to the consignment sale that I had planned on working at that morning. Around 7:45, our birthfather called to say that she had been admitted & was already at a 6! After lots of quick hugs & tears with my friends at the sale, I quickly drove home & began packing up the rest of our bags. Dave remembers me frantically calling multiple times on his way home- even once just to say, "Are you sure we remembered everything?... wait, I need to FLOSS!" before hanging up on him without him even getting a word in!

Dave made it home from his jobsite in Jacksboro around 9:45. We prayed for our birthparents and a safe delivery before pulling out of the driveway, and then we began a very quick trip down 35 to Temple! Our drive down was filled with lots of phone calls, and I also tried reading aloud to Dave from one of our books about caring for newborns. ;)

We made it to the hospital right before 1:00 in the afternoon, and our birthfather couldn't have been better about keeping us up to date with the progress of the delivery. After 4 quick pushes, the baby was born at 1:28 on Friday afternoon!

We were able to meet him about an hour after he was born, and there really are no words to describe that moment. He was beyond beautiful--7 lbs., 8 oz. and 18 inches long. The first thing we both noticed about him was his beautiful blond hair! We were able to spend quite awhile with our birthparents & the baby before they moved him to the NICU and our birthmother checked herself out of the hospital and headed home. The hospital's census was very high, so they didn't have a room to give us in the hospital; and, since this hospital doesn't have a well baby nursery, they put the baby in the NICU nursery. It actually worked out wonderfully, because we were able to spend as much time as we wanted with him in the NICU...and, the NICU nurses were absolutely fabulous and gave him a lot of extra attention! (When some of our friends & family heard that the baby was staying in the NICU, they were worried about his health...but he was only in there because it is the only nursery at this hospital.) Due to the swine flu, each baby is only allowed to have the same 2 people visitors while in the hospital. My (Bethany) parents had driven down on Friday evening, and since they weren't able to meet the baby in the hospital, they spent all their time in Temple bringing meals to us in the waiting room whenever we left the NICU. Late on Friday evening, Dave used his best persuasion skills to convince the nurses to let him step out into the hallway outside the NICU and hold the baby, and my parents peeked in through a window at the end of that hallway to see him.

We spent the rest of the day on Friday, all day Saturday, and most of Sunday loving on this beautiful baby boy. The love we felt for him was more intense than either of us could have imagined, & there were many, many tears of joy & thankfulness shed over him during those 48 hours. We briefly talked with our birthmom a few times over the waiting period and, each time, she still sounded confident in her decision to place the baby with us.

We met with 2 representatives from our Texas adoption agency at 11:30 on Sunday morning to sign all our paperwork. They were then headed to meet our birthparents at a nearby restaurant at 12:30 to review all their paperwork in order for our birthmother to sign her relinquishment at 1:30 p.m. At 12:25 p.m., I talked with our birthmother briefly on the phone, and she said that she couldn't talk for long because they were headed to the restaurant. The agency represntatives had promised us that they would call or text us as soon as the relinquishment was signed. At 1:45, I was starting to get nervous that they hadn't called yet, but I wasn't too upset, since throughout our entire placement, our birthmother has made continual comments about how she would never back out. We were also confident that she would sign (as were our adoption agents) since she spent so little time at the hospital and had gone home on Friday evening without even visiting the baby before she left.

At 1:50, Dave's phone started to ring, so he quickly left the NICU and stood in the hallway to take the call. I was holding the baby & watching through the window into the hallway when I saw his face go white. I quickly put the baby down in his bassinet & ran into the hallway, where Dave told me that it was the adoption agency on the phone saying that the birthparents had never showed up at the restaurant and had instead gone to Wal-Mart to buy a carseat for the baby. At the same time, the charge nurse walked up & said that a hospital social worker was on the way. We asked her why, & she said that the birthmother had just called & said that she was coming to get the baby. At that moment, our world was turned upside down. I remember falling on the ground and sobbing out to God...Dave was still on the phone with the adoption agency...and the baby's nurse ran out into the hallway and was suddently on the floor with me. She was holding me as I sobbed and told me that she was an adoptive mother too.

The represntatives from our Texas agency quickly came back to the hospital. With tear-stained faces, they told us that they were just as shell-shocked as we were. The four of us spent the next 2 hours in a conference room making tons of phone calls. Adoption Network, the group in California who matched us with our birthmom in May, was furiously trying to get ahold of our birthmom, too. Throughout the next few hours, our adoption agents found out that it was actually our birthfather who felt he couldn't give up the baby; and, because of that, our birthmom was refusing to sign. No words can adequately describe the overwhelming emotions that we felt at that time. We called our parents and a few friends intermittently, and we know that there were hundreds of people calling out to God on our behalf during that time.

Around 5:00, our agents heard from our birthmom one last time, and she said that she and the baby's father were coming to get the baby that evening. We spent one final hour crying & praying over the baby before we left the hospital. We have never been asked to do anything harder than to walk away from that perfectly beautiful baby that we had grown to love so quickly in 2 days.

We sat in the hospital parking lot for awhile & called our parents, who were all weeping right along with us. During those terrible hours of waiting to find out what was going to happen, God reminded Dave of the story of Abraham & Isaac. As Abraham was walking up the mountain to sacrifice, Isaac asked, "Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham replied, "God Himself will provide." Another of our dear friends put it this way: That even while Abraham and Isaac were walking up one side of the mountain, God's provision (the ram) was walking up the other side. We believe God Himself will provide for us.

We don't know if He's going to provide us with this baby by allowing our birthparents to change their minds again...we don't know if He will provide another baby for us...or maybe God's provision will come in a way that we can't even imagine at this point.

We know that many of you are hurting and crying right along with us. Specifically, we would love for you to pray for these things....

~Continuing our prayer since placement that he grows to have a heart after God's own
~Thanking God for answering our prayers for a healthy baby boy
~For safety, protection, and blessing over this baby's life as he grows
~For graciousness and forgiveness toward our birthparents
~That God would strengthen our marriage through this trial
~That Satan's lies would have no foothold in our lives or our home
~That God would answer our prayer to have children in our home in His time and for our patience through that process

We love you all and are EVER grateful for your prayers and support through this difficult time for us.
David & Bethany

By God's unfailing love, To Be Continued...

He's Here!!

He's here!!! Our beautiful baby boy was born earlier this afternoon, and we couldn't be more excited! We just got out to the hotel and are deliriously happy and exhausted. Thank you for all your love and prayers! We can't wait to share all the details as soon as the paperwork is finalized on Sunday.

What's in a Name?

I have always been one of those people who loves names! I bought my first baby name book when I was in middle school, and ever since then, I have been (nearly) obsessed with the meaning, history, and heritage of names. My middle school journals contain lists of names that I loved at that point....don't laugh too hard, but here's a sample of one of my entries:

July 29, 1994
I want to have 12 girls. Perhaps if I have a few boys it will be okay. I will never make any of my children endure the pain of having a popular name. (I guess I was "slightly" dramatic even back then!) Here are names I like:
Mary Rose
Victoria Lynn
Tricia Joy (this was the name of a senior at my high school whom I completely idolized)
Theresa Hope

Thank goodness that my tastes have changed since then! ;) I think that some of my interest in names came from my own middle name, Victoria. My parents chose it simply because they liked how it flowed with Bethany. But, after I was born, they discovered that Victoria was also the middle name of two of my great-grandmothers, Emma Victoria & Clara Victoria. I love that my name is linked to my family's heritage, even though that was a sweet surprise that my parents didn't plan on!

Ever since I bought that first baby name book, my name book collection has only grown and now includes these titles, plus a few others (including a collection of Swedish names that is completely printed in Swedish). The Baby Name Wizard is definitely my favorite baby name book. Each name entry in this book contains a graph showing which decade the name was most popular. It also includes 5 complementary boy & girl names as possible sibling names. The author, Laura Wattenberg, created an interactive website called the NameVoyager that also shows the popularity of each name per decade. A new feature on this website is a U.S. map which shows how relatively popular a name is in each state. Don't go to this website unless you're ready to spend at least a half hour checking out all your favorite names!!

Thankfully, Dave willingly puts up with my interest in baby names. We even have a tradition of playing a "game" called "Name of the Night"--also known in our home as NOTN. NOTN involves me proposing a baby name late at night (usually when I can't sleep) and Dave (who's usually half-asleep) telling me the first thought that pops into his mind when he hears the name (which is usually either a grunt or a "Are you kidding me?"). This has been a very successful way for us to "weed out" a lot of names! ;) (Perhaps you could play NOTN, too, in order to discover your next baby's name.)

Needless to say...we are very excited about sharing Baby Rinn's name as soon as he's here! We love its meaning and link to our family heritage...but there's no way you'll get it out of us now! Any guesses, though?

A Shower of Love

I am absolutely oozing with joy over the incredible shower I received on Saturday from my sweet friends! Amber, Corrie, Alicia, Jenny, Kimi, and Holly spent so much time planning such a special celebration to welcome Baby Rinn!

The cake was my absolute favorite kind (marble with raspberry filling and buttercream frosting) from Sweet Memories in Keller....so delicious! (There are still a few more pieces in our fridge that I am rationing out to enjoy as long as possible!) There was also delicious egg bake, fruit, punch, and these adorable cookies that Corrie made! All of the cookies had different words on them (such as baby, cute, sweet, mom) and were so cute! I think Kimi knew that I had been eyeing the wreaths that her boys have on their bedroom doors, so she ordered this wreath for Baby Rinn's hospital room & bedroom door! I love it! Since the girls know how much I love games, they planned some really fun ones! One was guess the celebrity adoptions....for example, did you know that Faith Hill, Bill Clinton, & John Lennon were adopted? And, did you know that Walt Disney, Julie Andrews, and Nancy Reagan were adoptive parents? We also played baby bingo while I opened all my gifts!

I was absolutely overwhelmed by all the amazing gifts that we received...it seemed as if the pile of gifts never got any smaller no matter how many I opened. Each person's invitation said a different "time" of the day for which to purchase a gift....bath time, bed time, reading time, etc. (There was even one that said mom time!) Because of this, we received a huge variety of presents...and it really seems that now we have everything we need to bring Baby Rinn home! We are truly grateful for the overflow of generous gifts we received.


Love all these sweet friends (and, of course, the ones who also aren't in the pictures)...they have prayed us through a lot of tough times, and it's so wonderful to be able to celebrate with them now!













And...Grandpa Kal & Daddy came back at the very end of the shower--just in time to get some cake and load a LOT of presents!

Week 20 Ultrasound Pictures

We received copies of Baby Rinn's 20 week ultrasound in the mail today! (This is the ultrasound that I was able to go to about 3 weeks ago with our birthmother!) It's so fun to look at these pictures and know that this is our little boy! What a miracle!

Here's a sample of the ultrasound pictures. Though I probably shouldn't post this, here's proof that he's really a boy! ;)
Here's a picture of his arms...
...and this picture shows Baby Rinn's beautiful little hands.
Psalm 139:14-16
"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

Your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be."

It's a Boy!

We are so excited to share that sweet Baby Rinn is a beautiful baby boy! It was such a miracle to see him at the ultrasound yesterday. I was very impressed with both the sonographer & the doctor, who together spent about an hour showing us & explaining all of his organs and limbs. The funniest part was when they showed us his "antenna" and assured us we could go ahead and paint the nursery for a boy! Of course, I started crying when we first saw his beautiful beating heart...such a miracle! He had both his hands covering his head for most of the appointment, making it especially hard for us to get a view of his face, but we finally got to see it at the very end. I loved how full his lips looked! He was 12 ounces & measured around 21 weeks, 1 - 2 days...and after some recalculating and looking again at the calendar, our birthmom realized her dates were off...so Baby Rinn's new due date is October 28.

I can't stop picturing his sweet little hands on top of his face and his right leg up by his chest...we're definitely falling in love with our beautiful boy!

And, yes, we do have a name for him, but that will stay a surprise until he's born. We were able to share his name with our birthparents, which is something special that they have for now.

Thank you for all your prayers for us yesterday...and please keep praying for our baby's healthy development. We couldn't be more excited about meeting HIM in October!

October 9...our new due date!

Baby Rinn is measuring a little ahead of his/her original due date of October 15....so the doctor moved the due date ahead to October 9! We can't wait to meet this little one! Thanks for all your continued prayers!

No News Yet!

While we were very hopeful about finding out Baby Rinn's gender today, we had a call from our birthmother earlier this afternoon saying that she wasn't able to make it to the doctor. Our birthfather usually has Fridays off, but he was called in to work this morning for what was supposed to be a half-day...but, at 2:30, he was still working, so she knew he wouldn't be home in time today to take her. Even though we have to wait another week, that's okay with us--it only brings us one week closer to October! We're going to make it fun and ask for your predictions on Baby Rinn! (see quiz on the left side) :)

We're also excited about continuing to develop our relationship with our birthparents....today our birthmother shared some of her recent cravings with me, which was fun!

First Phone Call!

Thanks for all your prayers for us last night as we had our first phone call with our birthparents! We wanted to quickly let you know that it went great! Despite our initial nervousness (our adoption counselor called this type of call "the scariest blind date you could ever have"), we were able to share our hearts with our birthparents & give them an idea of what kind of life their baby will have growing up in our home. It was fun to chat with them and discover how many things we all had in common! They are truly precious, and we are once again so thankful that that they are placing the baby together and are both involved in the entire adoption process.

And...we also found out that our birthmother will be going to the doctor on Friday, so we still don't know if Baby Rinn is a boy or girl. We promise to let you all know as soon as we find out...we can't wait!

An Especially Sweet Mother's Day!

The exciting news of this week made for a wonderful Mother's Day! Dave & I were literally mobbed when we walked into church with so many sweet friends congratulating, hugging, & crying with us! I know I've said it before, but I am absolutely in awe of the love & support we have been shown on this journey to adoption!

(As an aside, it was such a joy to attend church on Mother's Day. In the past few years, this has been one of the very hardest days for me. My heart was absolutely overflowing with joy today! I am amazed at what God has done in my/our life, and I cannot wait to see what He has planned in the next few months as we wait for Baby Rinn!)

After church, my parents, grandparents, and cousin Nate came over for Mother's Day lunch. I always love our family dinners on Sunday; and, though we usually have them at my parent's house, it was a lot of fun to make dinner for everyone. Our amazing dessert was from Decadent Sweetz; we have a huge shout-out to Susan Robertson from our church who makes these amazing creations--YUM!


Mother's Day was especially sweet for me with all the messages, mommy-to-be cards, & presents I received today! I am still in shock that a little one will be in our family next Mother's Day!

Baby Rinn is on the Way!

To our sweet family & friends,

We are beyond thrilled to share our exciting news that we received a call on Thursday night that we have been picked by a birthmother!! An adoption counselor from the group we have been working with called because a birthmother was interested in us & wanted the counselor to ask a few questions before she made her final decision. We must have answered the questions correctly (at least according to what the birthmother wanted!), because then the counselor said that she was going to be calling on Friday morning with the "official" offer; but, since Dave & I were both on the phone, she went ahead & gave us all the information so that we would have an extra 24 hours to think about it!

Needless to say, even before we had hung up with the adoption counselor on Thursday night, we were both grinning as big as could be and knew that this was the baby for our family!

We were in absolute amazement throughout the course of the call as we realized how many of our prayers have already been answered:

--our birth mother's family is supportive of her decision to place the baby

--her prenatal care & delivery are completely covered by insurance

--her pregnancy has been perfectly healthy so far

--our birthmother lives near Waco, Texas...meaning that we will not have to travel out-of-state or deal with extra attorney fees with an out-of-state adoption

--the birthfather and birthmother are together and are placing the baby as a couple

...and mostly, the complete peace we feel about this entire situation--a HUGE answer to prayer!!!


Baby Rinn is due on October 15!!! At this point, we do not know if Baby Rinn is a boy or girl; but, our birthmother is supposed to have a sono this week to find out!

To say the least, our hearts have not stopped pounding since around 8:00 on Thursday night. After getting off the phone with our adoption counselor, we immediately called both sets of our parents, who were so excited to hear about their grandbaby! (I'm fairly sure that my mom stayed up all Thursday night reviewing her baby clothing inventory & making shopping lists of what is still needed....) We will never forget either of those calls. To say the least, I barely slept on Thursday night...and I spent most of Friday with tears streaming down my face. Our hearts could not be any more full than they are right now!

Our next prayer requests are....
--for our conference call with both our birthmother & birthfather on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. to go smoothly....that we would begin to get to know each other beyond surface subjects
--for our hearts to remain calm & patient as we wait for October 15
--for continued healthy & safety for our birthmother and baby

We are so thankful for all your prayers...and we love you all dearly. Your love, support, and prayers for us on this journey mean more than you know.

Love, Dave, Bethany, and Baby Rinn

Our mouths are filled with laughter,
our tongues with songs of joy.
The LORD has done great things for us,
and we are filled with joy. Psalm 126:2a, 3