Road tripping to Duluth

On Friday Mr. & Mrs Sensible of Shoe returned to the "air conditioned" city for our Cooperative Meetings with Tasha and then Paul at the agency. When we arrived, Tasha gave us the sweetest homemade Thank You card because she wants to say thanks for what we are doing for her baby girl. Awe!!! Inside were three ultrasound photos so we saw the first photos of our daughter, Smellington!! I was so psyched to get these!! Our meeting went well...seems like we are all on the same page. Tasha wants us very involved in the birth and hospital care so that is yet another a wonderful gift from her to us. Next we met Paul for the first time and found out a bit more about him. I won't write much out of respect for his privacy but he has had a hard life and even though he is older, he not ready to parent a child. He shared some old photos and newspaper clippings that are important to him to give to the baby. We are going to start a scrapbook with photos and info about her birth family so she always know where she came from (and will understand why she was born with a permed mullet and wearing super short 70's shorts and striped tube socks). Because this is an open adoption, she will have ongoing contact with her birth family in the form of 2 visits a year plus photos and letters. We feel comfortable with and in fact encourage it because we don't want there to be any mystery about how she came to be with us and how much everybody loved her and wanted the best for her.