Three years ago, continued

Ok, let me first speak to those that are in the process of adopting your first child. Please, please, please get out a little notebook of some sort (right now!!!) and start journaling. I was very particular about journaling once we got the "call" and during the next week until we brought Mia home, but I really wish I would have journaled more during our wait. I am so proud that I at least had the brains to journal what I did because it's the little details that I want to pass on to Mia.

So, back to Mia's story.............

We were up at 4 am on Monday, August 22 and left the house at 5 am for Amarillo. (Those that have made the drive know what a THRILLING drive it is...NOT!!!!) We arrived in Amarillo at 10:15 and called Evan's cousin, Kevin, up to let him know we were in town and decided to meet for lunch. Unfortunately, we were so nervous about our meeting with the birth parents that we were horrible company. I remember staring at my lunch, not saying a word. After lunch, we went to our hotel to rest and pace the floor. Ok, ok...I paced the floor. Evan laid on the bed and watched TV. Trust me, I paced enough for the both of us.

We left the hotel at 2:15 for our 2:30 meeting. Before we left the hotel parking lot, we prayed (again!). After we prayed, we felt energized and renewed about our decision and sped to the church. Of course, being that Amarillo is small and it only takes 4 1/2 minutes to get ANYWHERE in town, we got to the church early. We circled the church a few times to kill time and Evan even had the foresight to get a picture of the church just in case this match worked and our daughter wanted to see where we met her birth parents one day. We met J and A in a Sunday school room with the maternity case worker. J and A were finishing up their lunch from Wendy's. When we walked in the room, J was playing horribly on an old piano and A was chomping away on some fries. They both seemed as nervous as we were, if that was even possible. We spent the next 2 1/2 hours talking about ourselves. J and A already had a rough idea about us from the profile, but of course, wanted to know more. We got to hear about their lives (a rough sketch) and why they were choosing to place their baby for adoption. The social worker brought up the issue of the name, Mia, and A went into a long explanation about why they chose the name and how it would mean a lot if she could keep it as some part of her name. I was smiling the whole time she was talking and couldn't wait to tell her that we were keeping the name. They were so excited. We did tell them that we would like to pick the middle name and when we told them we thought 'Grace' would be pretty, they agreed. We talked a lot about open adoption and what we thought that relationship would look like for us. We made an open adoption plan and talked about plans for the birth and hospital visits. Now, keep in mind, this was only our first match meeting. Most of these things are discussed later. However, since A was due in less than two weeks, we knew we had to get this stuff worked out if they decided to choose us. We went from the church to Chili's for dinner WITHOUT the social worker. I begged her to come, however, she wanted us to spend some time with just J and A. In retrospect, I am SO glad we did that because it gave us a chance to be a little more "us" without the agency looking over our shoulder. After dinner, we took J and A home and made plans to meet the next day.

We talked to A at 11 the next morning and decided we would go to their apartment for a while. We talked about the entrustment ceremony, then went to a local bakery for coffee. We visited a while longer and then it was time to take them home, and for us to head back home. A told us she had a Dr's appointment the next day and would give us a call later in the evening to let us know how it went. Remember, at this point, we did not know if it was a match. We said goodbye, hugged and headed home. The whole way home, all we could talk about was the possibility of bringing a baby home soon. We were scared, but VERY excited!

August 24 - Back to reality, back to work. All of our friends at work were so excited for us and we kept trying to bring everyone back to reality. This was not a done deal. They might not choose us. They might decide to parent. It was so obvious that they loved this little baby named Mia and the decision to place her for adoption was killing them. After work, we went to orchestra rehearsal at church and rushed home to call A. A said she had not felt well all day and had a Dr's appointment with an eye doctor. However, she had an OB appointment the next day and would call to tell us how it went. That was a good sign!!!! Maybe we were it.

August 25 - We were woken up at 3:51 am by the phone. It was J calling from the back of an ambulance. A's water broke and they were on their way to the hospital. J said we better get on the road if we wanted to be there in time! We jumped up and started running around the house like crazy people trying to get ready. We threw stuff in bags, called our parents to let them know what was going on and left the house a little after 5 am. As we were leaving, we found that a newspaper had been delivered to our house. This was strange, because we did not have a subscription. However, anytime anything big happens in our family...marriage, birth, death, etc., my Dad always buys a paper to save so we will always know what was going on the day of said event. Hmmmm, perhaps a sign from God that our daughter was going to be born that day?????

Ok, I am sorry, but I have to continue this later. There are four more days to write about and I am TIRED!!!!

To be continued....again.