It's been portrayed many times in stories and movies - Your life changed forever with just a phone call. This rang true (pun intended) for us on Thursday, March 8, the day our daughter was born.
That morning was like any other - just preparing for the day ahead. It was Thursday, so Bobby was going to be working from home, and it was the day of Student-led Conferences at my school so I was planning on getting home later than usual. Sometime that morning while I was at work, I got this strange feeling that "today was the day!" I quickly pushed the thought out of my head because it seemed impossible, well at least very improbable, as we had only officially been in our agency's matchbook for 3 weeks. When we met with our caseworker to turn in our matchbook letter, she told us the number of matches had decreased some in the last few months and to be prepared to wait. The average wait was 1 year, so 3 weeks just seemed out of the question!
Around 11am, Bobby received the call from the agency and was informed there was a baby girl who was born earlier that morning (was this when I got that strange feeling?!) along with a few other details but not many. The agency asked him to talk to me and see if we would like to proceed with this potential placement. So you would like to think that Bobby got a hold of me right away and we raced to the hospital to meet our baby girl, but that wasn't the case!
Since it was a conference day, we had early release so when he tried calling (and emailing and texting!) me I was getting the kids ready to go home and then taking them out to parent pick up. When I returned to my classroom, I still didn't get any messages because I grabbed my purse (without my phone!) and headed to lunch with a couple of my teammates! Ahhh! Can you even imagine what Bobby was going through?! I even commented to the girls on my team how I had left my phone in my room and it felt so weird not to have it on me!
When I got back around 12:15 I saw the urgent messages from Bobby - all they said were "Call me asap". I knew instantly he had gotten a call! I immediately called him back shaking and fighting back tears. I remember running to my great friend and fellow teammate's room next door while still on the phone with Bobby. I remember frantically pointing to my phone with my eyes wide and then running back into my room! She of course quickly followed behind wanting to hear the details!
Bobby is calm, cool, and collected and a man of few words and I am close to the opposite ;), but I remember him rambling (probably excited and panicked especially after dealing with and processing this news all on his own for over an hour!!) and I remember just wanting to say "Let's do it! Call them back, NOW," which I'm sure I said something similar to that after I left him finish talking!
So we talked to the agency again and we had to WAIT to meet her until later that afternoon after the pregnancy worker met with the birthmom again. I left conferences around 2 since I had a break (and thanks to some awesome teachers at my work) and headed home to wait to leave. From the time I got home to the time we left to go to the hospital (around 3) was all a blur - I'm sure there was a lot of hugging and crying. I did manage to change out of work clothes and I remember worrying about what I should wear to go meet her (you know, because newborns care and all!) while we were waiting for the OK to leave. We even managed to take a picture of us as we were leaving the house.
On the way there (about a 40 minute drive), I called our moms and cried each time I said, "We are on our way to the hospital to meet our potential daughter." It was so surreal - exciting and scary all at once! Those of you who have been through adoption know just because you meet a baby doesn't mean he or she will be yours - the birthmom could have a change of heart and if we felt uncomfortable with the situation, we would be able to decline.
One moment that is still very real to me and that I will never forget, was the moment I saw our baby girl. She was laying in her baby hospital bed, and as soon as I saw her I just sobbed and Bobby held me tight. That precious baby I just met was our daughter! All of the years of infertility and pain were for that moment, for that special gift - Ivy Rose. I would endure it all over again for her.
We still have a long road ahead and some sticky legal stuff going on at the moment, so please continue to keep the 3 of us in your prayers! It has been amazing to look back at this story so far and how every single thing was perfectly timed and orchestrated by our wonderful God! We know we are in good hands and we will continue to trust and let go of the handlebars!
Ivy - today - at 4 weeks!
