Meet the Parente Twins

We are overjoyed and honored to announce the arrival of Margaret Ann (on left) and Mary Christina Parente. They are a true gift from God and are absolutely beautiful. We will be adopting them when all legal paperwork and waiting period is over.

As most of you know, it's been over 4 years of praying and hoping for children. We have had many trials and lessons along the way. God apparently had something amazing planned and we are still in awe! God is just showing off again and letting us know that He always has a plan even if it's not our timing.

We want to take this opportunity to thank you for your prayers and support over the years. God has answered your prayers for us twofold!!!! We truly appreciate it and hope to return the favor!!

I am sure you are wondering, how and when did this happen? Here is the short story:

December 11th: We received an email from our Adoption Agency asking if we would be open to be shown to a woman who had given birth to twin girls. She was unable to care for them and wanted them to go to a Christian family who would "love them as their own." They were born premature at 34 weeks. They would be released from the hospital December 26th. We prayed about it and soon said "Yes".

December 17th: The birthmother and two of her friends were shown adoption profiles for 8 families, one of which was ours.

December 18th 4:00pm: We were on the way to Orange County, getting in the Security line at Oakland airport when Erin got a call on her phone. It was the Adoption Agency informing us that we had been chosen. The birthmother and her friends had chosen us!!! We were then informed that the girls (Twin A and Twin B) were doing so well that they would be discharged Sunday December 20th. Erin broke down crying in the airport, said "Congratulations Daddy" and after lots of hugs, we had to quickly get our bags off the plane. We headed back to the airport parking lot to get our car and went home to prepare. We figured we might want to get one last good night sleep.

December 19th: We had our first of many trips to Babies R Us to get another car seat and a few other things we thought we might need. We then drove out to Modesto where the girls were born. We met them at 5pm and right away we were in love!!! They were so adorable all wrapped up in their hospital footprint swaddles, knit caps and blankies (made my hospital volunteers) The Dr. wanted us to feed them for a couple days to get used to their eating styles. We also gave them baths. We named them that first night - Margaret Ann (Twin A) and Mary Christina (Twin B)

December 21st: They were discharged Monday to give us more time for instruction by the amazing nursing staff. The birthmother felt it would be too hard for her to meet us, but we did get to meet the woman who was instrumental in helping her choose our agency and make an adoption plan. This woman was filled with the Holy Spirit. She told us about how she read each of the 8 profiles word for word and God had placed us in her heart. But the birthmother had to make the decision for herself and she also chose us. The social worker gave us a message from the birthmother which was " Thank you so much." We were overwhelmed with gratitude for her loving sacrifice and through tears expressed how she had blessed us and made about 200+ peoples Christmas this year. The woman asked if she could pray with us and we continued to cry during her amazing prayer for the "little angels" and us. We also thanked her daughter who was there who just got back from Iraq...we cried again. Then we got the girls ready and loaded in the car. We left around 2:30pm to bring them to their new home. Mom sat between the girls to make sure they were OK on the rainy drive home.

December 21st - Now: We are enjoying the twins immensely, but are very tired. They have a very strict feeding, bathing, burping, changing, sleeping schedule. We are spending time bonding with them as much as possible. Right now they mainly sleep all day and night. Please see an introduction to the girls below and many photos below that. Enjoy!!