On Monday afternoon, we had our regular staff meeting after school. This time we were meeting in departments. As I sat there meeting with the other school counselor, Kathy, my cell phone rang. I looked down and saw, "Dawn Baker". Now for those of you who are "Teen Mom" fans, you know that Dawn works for Bethany Christian Services as a pregnancy counselor. I immediately got anxious as I went to pick up the phone. Kathy quickly picked up on what was happening and ran to get Joel. Thank goodness we work in the same building and he could get down to the office quickly to be with me.
Dawn informed us that there was a baby girl born at 1:50 AM that morning and that her birthparents chose us!! Holy moly!! We were told to come to the hospital on Tuesday morning to meet our baby girl!
We spent Monday evening frantically pulling out all of our baby stuff. Every baby bin from the basement was strewn about our living room and kitchen. (And if you ask Joel, there are WAY too many bins.) We pulled out any clothing of Gus' that was gender neutral. Brought up the pack 'n plays. (Yes, that is plural.) Brought up the swing and the carseat and the changing pad....
I ran to Target to pick up the essentials like diapers, formula, Dreft, a couple of baby girls outfits (so she didn't come home in blue) and Tums (I knew I would need those to get through the next couple of days.)
I had Gus stay in my bed that night (I wanted to snuggle with him and it was our last night as a family of 3) as I laid awake the whole night worrying about everything that was about to happen and crying for my little boy who had no idea that in 12 hours his world was going to change drastically. I spent half of my night worrying about our next adoption process, praying for this baby, praying for her birthparents, praying for our family. I spent the other half watching Gus sleep and praying for him. Praying for the transition that our family was about to make. Soaking up the last few hours of his only child life and praying for him as the big brother that he was about to become. Sad that I didn't have time to do something special with him on the last day as a family of three. It was a very long night full of anxiety and tears....no sleep.
The next day, Gus went to his sitter's house and Joel and I headed to work for a couple of hours before heading to the hospital. Once we got to the hospital we met up with Dawn who had some paperwork for us to fill out. She then went to meet with the birthparents for what seemed to be forever long. She came back to get us and we began the longest walk in the world. The hospital we were in was huge and the room we were in was super far away from the room that "S" was in. The walk seemed to be long, awkward and full of anxiety. (Remember the movie The Green Mile....for some reason that kept popping in my head as we made this long walk down to meet the birthparents.)
Once in the room, we met the birthparents, his mom, her mom and her grandparents. Nine of us in a tiny hospital room. It sure was cozy! We had a chance to talk and get to know one another a little bit. I was jumping out of my skin! Pretty sure that my nails were digging into Joel's knee as I held his hand. We were then led back to the waiting room to wait....and wait...and wait....
While we were waiting, Dawn was taking care of some stuff with the birthparents and also introduced the baby girl to her birth family. (They had not yet seen her.) After what seemed to be a long time, Dawn came back to get us. We went back to the room that "S" was in. Once we were there, "S" made a point to hand this beautiful little girl over to me. We held her and loved her and took some pictures with her, with the birthparents, with the whole family. We gave "S" and "C", the birthfather, a few minutes alone with the baby before we got to take her back down to the room that we were assigned.
We spent the rest of the day hanging out in that room waiting to be discharged. The baby was born at 36 weeks so she had to pass a carseat test before we could take her home. We had to wait a long time before the NICU had time to do the test. We FINALLY left for home around 8 PM. We pulled in the driveway at 9 PM to meet up with Gus and introduce him to his baby sister!
We are beyond thrilled to welcome
PENELOPE LIN ELIZABETH
to our family! She is absolutely beautiful and the sweetest little thing! Penny weighed in at 6 lbs 8 oz and was 18" long. We are cautiously approaching the next few weeks as we wait for legal placement, but we are over the moon and head over heels in love with this beautiful little girl!!
More info and pictures to follow in the upcoming weeks. In the mean time, prayers would be much appreciated as we wait out the risk period.
No comments:
Post a Comment