One Crazy Week

4/28/12

Well, this has without a doubt been one of the most eventful weeks of my life.  It all started last week when I was contacted by Microsoft, wondering if I was interested in interviewing.  I'm always open to hearing what other places have to say, so I said sure.  The only catch is that the jobs they were interviewing for are in Redmond, WA.  So Jamie has been living in denial ever since.  Until I get an offer and we actually have to choose, she will continue to live in her happy place.  My interview was on Wednesday, 4/25.  Soooo, I should know more by next week sometime.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg.  On Monday, 4/23, I got a call from New Life.  They informed me that there was a baby born on Friday, April 20th, and was currently in the NICU at St Mary's Hospital.  It was a boy and we were on the top of the list, so if we said yes, he would be ours.  All we knew was that the baby was born at 29 weeks, weighed under 3 lbs, and would be in the NICU for 6-8 weeks.  So here we are, 2 days away from my Microsoft interview, with this laid on us. 

Should we adopt?  How will this affect the interview?  If we do adopt, should we really move halfway across the country with a brand new baby?  Will choosing the baby essentially kill my chance at an offer from Microsoft?  Just a few of the 100 or so questions that went flying through our minds.

On Tuesday, April 24th, my birthday, we did decide to say yes to the adoption.  We both felt completely overwhelmed, but we decided to take a deep breath and make the first decision that was in our control.  Yes or no on the adoption?  In the end it was a no brainer.  We both felt good about the decision and were confident this was the right decision.  Whatever happens with the potential job move is of secondary importance. 

So this past Thursday we got to meet our son for the first time.  It was amazing!  We named him Ethan James.  We both spent about 2 hours with him on Thursday afternoon.  On Friday Jamie and I went up over lunch to see him and she ended up holding him for about 4 hours, just getting some good mommy/son bonding time.  Then today she went again and held him for about an hour before her shift at the hospital.  When she got off, Norah and I met her in the NICU so Norah could meet Ethan for the first.  They then left and I got to sit with the little man for about 2 hours. 

This post is running long, so I will post more details about his condition tomorrow.  In the meantime, you can get your fix of pictures by visiting the Shutterfly website I created.   http://ethanjamesmn.shutterfly.com