It is a tradition in
our house that we order in Chinese food on Valentine ’s Day. This Valentine ’s Day was no different…or so
we thought. After dinner the fortune
cookies were handed out and we each read our fortune aloud. Chris’ read, “Your luck has been completely
changed today”.
The next day, after Chris and I spent a wonderful day
volunteering at Addison’s school, we were all in the car driving home. It was a gorgeous day. The phone rang…it was the adoption
agency.
That night we ran around like crazy people. I went to get a last minute haircut (always a
bad idea), we picked out what we would wear the next day and arranged child
care for Addison. We explained,
cautiously, to Addison that we had been chosen again by a mom who wanted us to
take care of her baby, and this time we were going to meet this mom. This was not something we had done
before. We knew from the beginning that
this time was different…we just didn’t know how different yet. We were nervous from the second I answered
“hello?”. What if she doesn’t like us in
person? What if we dress to fancy…or not
fancy enough? What if she changes her
mind before we even get there? As soon
as you answer that phone call you become vulnerable.
We pulled in the parking lot…early. As we got out of the car I said to Chris, “No
matter what, it is always you and me”.
We have taken to comforting each other with those words throughout the last
few years. We took deep breaths and went
inside. We waited in a conference room
while the counselor met, in another room, with the woman that would change our
lives. I have no idea what our counselor
said to us as we waited…my stomach was a mess as I tried to muster up the calm
to be as normal as possible...or maybe “normal” is not what she is looking
for…wow…this is what endless waiting does to a person.
She and her mom walked into the room. She was already crying. My tears closely followed…more so for her
than for me. What must this feel like
for her? What a brave, brave girl. We talked for a while. She
said she knew as soon as she saw our profile book. She said the baby kicked when she looked at
our picture and she said it was like he chose us. He chose us…imagine that.
I felt like I knew her…I connected. My heart immediately attached to her. Ultrasound pictures were shared…more
tears. Audrey (her name was changed to
protect her privacy…Audrey means “noble strength”) brought her own baby
pictures for us to look at…adorable. It
was then we learned that her sweet baby was due anytime…holy crap.
“Anytime”, turned into 3 weeks. It was an extremely short amount of time to
prepare for a new baby, but as waiting adoptive parents, every second longer
that we had to wait was excruciating. What
we did not realize in the moment was how very critical those few weeks
were. Critical to us bonding with Audrey. Critical to Audrey learning to trust us, and
us learning to trust her.
We texted with her daily and shared numerous meals
together. We talked, we laughed, we
cried. We found out that she was having
a boy. A baby boy :) We
chose his name…together. We encouraged
her to take pictures of her pregnant belly.
We learned about her family. We
connected, we bonded, we asked questions, she asked questions, we all prepared,
as much as you can prepare for such an event, for what was about to come…we
held our breath, prayed like we have never prayed before, and surrendered our
hearts.
Life was just about to get even more unexpected.
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