After baby girl left our home in September (due to
revocation by her birth mom) we really weren’t sure if we could keep walking
the road of adoption. We were on “hold” for months just trying to catch our
breath. After a while, our agency encouraged us to consider walking forward one
small step at a time. We weren’t really sure if we would ever be ready, but we
knew for certain that we couldn’t hold on for a long emotional roller coaster
ride IF we tried again.
So, with our home study expiring in
August of 2017, we thought we wouldn’t officially close the door until it
expired. We told them, “We really aren’t interested in pairing up with birth
moms who have a while to go with their pregnancy. Please only call us if you
have a hospital call (a completed delivery where birth mom decides in the final
hour to place for adoption and hasn’t picked a family).” These don’t happen
very often at all, and honestly we weren’t really holding our breath- but it
was all we thought we could handle.
Fast
forward to the 2nd week of February, I get a phone call from a
sister site of our agency. They apparently hadn’t known our request for
hospital calls only and had shown our profile to a birth mom, AND that birth
mom had picked us, AND wanted to meet us. We were told she was due in about a
month, March 12th but wanted to meet us for lunch as soon as
possible. We *almost* said no. Why? That big ol’ F-word: Fear. After praying
for a bit about it, we scheduled with the agency to drive to meet her on
February 13th. Just for a quick lunch and back home- or so we
thought. We drove about 3 hours and arrived to the agency office at 11:30am. We
were quickly greeted by the site supervisor and escorted to a meeting room. She
introduced herself and explained that they had an “interesting situation” (I’m
already thinking NOPE- we have had enough of interesting situations!) She told
us that the birth mom still wanted to meet with us, but wouldn’t be able to
make it to the office for our meeting because
she had just gone into labor and was
on her way to the hospital.
……….jaw hits floor
……….awkward hysterical laughing
So,
we finished our meeting with the supervisor and drove to the hospital. We
register at the front desk and are taken to her labor and delivery room. Birth
momma is in her hospital gown, laying on the bed having a contraction when we
walk in to introduce ourselves! She asked several questions about our extended family, our
jobs, and had us talk to some of her support system. Then she said, “Well, so are
you guys okay with this?”
Fast
forward several hours: Nicholas was having a hard time with labor and his heart
rate was dipping dangerously low during contractions. Eventually a large team
of doctors and nurses came into the room and explained that he would have to be
born via C-Section & they needed to take her to the operating room right
away. She was understandably terrified. I immediately remembered my C-Section
with Noah & how scary that was. I told her she could do it and explained
(some of) what it was like. Then, she asked me to come with her to the O.R.! A
nurse handed me scrubs and told me to follow them. Next thing I know, I am holding her hand and talking her
through the surgery. Right before he was born, they lowered the screen because
she wanted to see his birth. It was absolutely surreal. I had rolled into town make-up and hair done, wearing my heels; thinking I am going out to
lunch! Hours later, I’ve got scrubs on over those heels and am seeing a baby
born via c section!
We just thought we were going to lunch......
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