(Part I can be found HERE)
Monday came and I had been talking with Amy about another situation that had popped up for the agency. It was a baby girl, born early, paperwork already signed...but the fees were just way too high for us. I know it may seem weird that I was looking for something else, but we didn't have a definite answer on the St George situation and we really felt like it was going to fall through so I was actively pursuing other things. Amy said she'd keep me posted on both situations - to see if the agency would reduce the fees for the baby girl and also what happened at the doctor's appointment.
I called my mom (which I do usually about once a day) and we were chatting about the baby girl situation...mostly lamenting (read: complaining about) the high cost of adoption. My other line beeped and I saw it was Amy. I told my mom I had to go and I grabbed the other line. Amy asked "did you get my text?" My initial reaction was that she (the birthmom) decided she didn't want us. I told Amy I had been on the phone so I hadn't seen a text yet. Then Amy dropped the bomb "She wants you, and she is at the doctor, 6cm dilated, they are doing a C-section now." She told me we might want to start looking at travel options, but not to book anything until we saw paperwork emailed from the agency. I hung up the phone and saw the text she was talking about: 5/16/11 10:59am "She just said that she wants you. She is going to the dr in St George and thinks they will keep her" I called Nathan at work (he was luckily doing a security watch and not a gig...otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get a hold of him) I looked online at plane tickets and was astounded at the cost...$750 each for one way. Surprisingly I didn't do much more, I actually made a sandwich, sat on the couch and watched TV for an hour or so. I was convinced that I would be getting a call shortly that said "never mind!" I did start a few batches of laundry, it needed to be done anyway...and I vacuumed and dusted. It wasn't until I talked to Amy again that I realized I needed to get my butt in gear. She had talked to the birthmom and told her she HAD to be sure...that we would be flying in from Illinois and before they told us to get on a plane she had to be 100% set in her decision. She said she was sure, which Amy relayed to us and so I started packing. We decided to make the trip via car instead of plane...which still seems so crazy to me. Mapquest said it was a 23.5 hour drive. I knew it would be longer once you factored in the pit stops, etc...and we planned on making it in one shot. No overnight stops. It was daunting...and my OCD brain started worrying about the car breaking down in the middle of Nebraska.
While Nathan was squaring things away with his work, I dug through the boxes in the nursery closet and found the few little blue outfits we'd bought in preparation for the twins last summer. I tore off the tags and washed them, still not allowing myself to believe they'd actually be used. I hurried outside in the chilly weather to put in the rest of my flowers (I'd started the week before but had to stop because of a monsoon rainstorm)...man, planting flowers in cold dirt is not that fun! Nathan got home from work and we packed our bags. We ran to a couple stores to see if we could find a nice gift to give to our birthmother (as an aside...how do you even possibly get a gift that says "thank you for making us a family?!). We made the announcement on Facebook - which we seriously considered NOT doing...until we had a picture of us with a baby...but we decided if this went south we'd need the love and support of our friends & family.
We got the car packed & said our good-byes to Winston. Our friends came over to get our key so they could watch over Winston (and so they could watch the Bulls playoff games on our big screen TV). We passed along to them all the perishable food in our fridge and hit the road at 10pm...which incidentally was 2 hours earlier than Nathan thought I'd be ready to go. I have a bit of a problem running late...so he was pleasantly surprised that we were able to take off so quick. I wasn't so surprised...afterall this was the second quick pack job we've had to do in the last 6 weeks...and I still had the packing list from the first one.
Monday came and I had been talking with Amy about another situation that had popped up for the agency. It was a baby girl, born early, paperwork already signed...but the fees were just way too high for us. I know it may seem weird that I was looking for something else, but we didn't have a definite answer on the St George situation and we really felt like it was going to fall through so I was actively pursuing other things. Amy said she'd keep me posted on both situations - to see if the agency would reduce the fees for the baby girl and also what happened at the doctor's appointment.
I called my mom (which I do usually about once a day) and we were chatting about the baby girl situation...mostly lamenting (read: complaining about) the high cost of adoption. My other line beeped and I saw it was Amy. I told my mom I had to go and I grabbed the other line. Amy asked "did you get my text?" My initial reaction was that she (the birthmom) decided she didn't want us. I told Amy I had been on the phone so I hadn't seen a text yet. Then Amy dropped the bomb "She wants you, and she is at the doctor, 6cm dilated, they are doing a C-section now." She told me we might want to start looking at travel options, but not to book anything until we saw paperwork emailed from the agency. I hung up the phone and saw the text she was talking about: 5/16/11 10:59am "She just said that she wants you. She is going to the dr in St George and thinks they will keep her" I called Nathan at work (he was luckily doing a security watch and not a gig...otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get a hold of him) I looked online at plane tickets and was astounded at the cost...$750 each for one way. Surprisingly I didn't do much more, I actually made a sandwich, sat on the couch and watched TV for an hour or so. I was convinced that I would be getting a call shortly that said "never mind!" I did start a few batches of laundry, it needed to be done anyway...and I vacuumed and dusted. It wasn't until I talked to Amy again that I realized I needed to get my butt in gear. She had talked to the birthmom and told her she HAD to be sure...that we would be flying in from Illinois and before they told us to get on a plane she had to be 100% set in her decision. She said she was sure, which Amy relayed to us and so I started packing. We decided to make the trip via car instead of plane...which still seems so crazy to me. Mapquest said it was a 23.5 hour drive. I knew it would be longer once you factored in the pit stops, etc...and we planned on making it in one shot. No overnight stops. It was daunting...and my OCD brain started worrying about the car breaking down in the middle of Nebraska.
While Nathan was squaring things away with his work, I dug through the boxes in the nursery closet and found the few little blue outfits we'd bought in preparation for the twins last summer. I tore off the tags and washed them, still not allowing myself to believe they'd actually be used. I hurried outside in the chilly weather to put in the rest of my flowers (I'd started the week before but had to stop because of a monsoon rainstorm)...man, planting flowers in cold dirt is not that fun! Nathan got home from work and we packed our bags. We ran to a couple stores to see if we could find a nice gift to give to our birthmother (as an aside...how do you even possibly get a gift that says "thank you for making us a family?!). We made the announcement on Facebook - which we seriously considered NOT doing...until we had a picture of us with a baby...but we decided if this went south we'd need the love and support of our friends & family.
We got the car packed & said our good-byes to Winston. Our friends came over to get our key so they could watch over Winston (and so they could watch the Bulls playoff games on our big screen TV). We passed along to them all the perishable food in our fridge and hit the road at 10pm...which incidentally was 2 hours earlier than Nathan thought I'd be ready to go. I have a bit of a problem running late...so he was pleasantly surprised that we were able to take off so quick. I wasn't so surprised...afterall this was the second quick pack job we've had to do in the last 6 weeks...and I still had the packing list from the first one.
Here we are, pulling out of our driveway, hoping that the next 24+ hours we'd spend in a car would lead us to something wonderful.
1 comment:
This is so exciting! Part 3 please!! So glad you're sharing this with all of us.
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