What an awesome feeling it is to sit here, to be able to, to want to tell you our story. Our WHOLE STORY about the most beautiful boy that came into our lives. The boy that has made each day better than the last, the boy that with a simple smile can change my mood in an instant, the boy that squeals in sheer delight when we arrive at the closed bedroom door of his bonus siblings to wake them up and sing our special morning song, the boy that smiles from ear to ear when I lay him down to bed whispering the same special line I say every night, the boy who grabs my cheeks and studies my mouth as I sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow to him, the boy that has taken each of our hearts and made them fuller. That boy.
Today seems like a wonderful day to begin to tell our story of how our adoption came to be... to tell you about our journey. I know at the time we decided to adopt others stories were the highlight of my research, those true stories helped me to understand the future that lied ahead on this journey.
One year ago today we got the phone call from our Lawyer in Florida telling us we had been chosen by a Birth Mother to adopt her baby boy that had a due date of July 1, 2011. The flood of emotion with that phone call was crazy...so crazy. I called my husband at work immediately and although I am sure he had his own emotion he was the rock, the realist, the person who had scepticism within him. I was the believer the one who instantly knew this boy was mine and loved him fiercely without ever seeing a picture of his Birth Mother, an ultrasound image, nothing. I guess that is where men and women differ, I don't always understand it and I most definitely get upset about it but I try to believe this is what makes the world a balanced place.
That night I was to phone T's Birth Mother V. I did. That was pretty scary...not knowing what you are going to say, how you are going to react to things that are said, not knowing exactly what questions to ask... Somehow we made it through. She didn't want to speak with A which our caseworker told us is very normal. Our conversation was about an hour in that hour she told me everything about her life, her past, her troubles and what brought her to her decision. I told her everything about us, our life, our home, our surroundings, my bonus children that lived with us half the time, what we wanted to teach baby T, how we planned to raise the beautiful boy that was growing in her belly. I left nothing out...I held nothing back. I am positive that this is not the way it always works during a phone conversation but I felt for OUR conversation this is what she needed, what she wanted. At the end of the conversation as we said our goodbyes she told me she knew she made the right choice.... As I hung up the phone my final "trimester" had begun.
After the phone calls to our families I brought the news to facebook with a countdown to his arrival. Many, many adoptive parents I know would never do this and would suggest against it. I just knew for me that I couldn't not tell the world, I am way to open, I am painfully honest sometimes to a fault and most importantly this joy was a JOY I had been waiting a LONG time to feel and I would be damned if I wasn't going to share it with the world!!!
Over the next few months leading up to my beautiful son's First Birthday I want to share with you our journey. Beginning when we got the phone call that we were chosen to the time his adoption was finalized. I hope that these blurbs will help you through your own journey...it is a journey that in the end is worth every second of the time you spent on it. You can also find some of our story on Spearmint Baby, my "Baby Bump" and Birth Story.
