At Last, a Match

I was hesitant about posting this, because with adoption there's so much uncertainty, but it looks like we might be "expecting." A birth mother, "A," has chosen us. We got the first call on Friday, from our caseworker. She said that A had seen our profile and had expressed interest in us. Over the weekend the whole family prayed. We didn't tell many people because it seemed like a long shot. But Monday our caseworker called back. She said that A had thought about it all weekend and didn't want to see any more profiles because we were the family she wanted to adopt her baby. It's a girl, by the way, and she's due the first week in August. When I got off the phone with Erica (caseworker) I just cried. This has been such a long process with so many disappointments and I couldn't believe it was really maybe happening at last. And the fact that we were praying so much (and listening to conference) over the weekend and that's when she decided - - well I knew we were being blessed.

We set up to have a telephone conference with A and her caseworker Tuesday afternoon. I was a zombie at work Monday night - - just subconsciously thinking non-stop about the "maybe baby" and wondering how everything was going to turn out. Scott and I did a lot of talking and felt good about things. Tuesday my friend Gretchen, who I hadn't seen for years, came to visit with her 3 darling boys (so cute! so well behaved!) and she had to sit and wait while Scott and I chatted on the phone for about 30 minutes. It was a great call overall, though the connection wasn't good and there was a lot of talking over eachother. A is an amazing person, I cannot imagine making the difficult sacrifice she is making. She said that one of the things that made her choose us was the fact that we had a son with special needs, because she has a daughter with special needs. She asked if I was going to be working when the baby was born, and it was great to be able to say, "well, I only work 4 hours a week, and I can take any time off that I need." I am so grateful that I can stay home and be a mom full time! She also asked if we would be there for the birth. I wasn't sure what to say, of course we wanted to be, but we didn't know if that would invade her privacy or if she'd feel comfortable with that, so we told her we'd go along with her wishes. Turns out she really wants us there so that we can immediately bond with the baby (she even said, "your baby" to us). All of this fills me with hope that everything will work out. I have known other people whose adoption plans had not worked out, so I'm trying not to be too excited, but I can't help it. A is being induced, so we should be able to be there in plenty of time for the baby to be born. Thank goodness we've still got flight benefits, that will make things a lot easier.

A lot of things still have to happen before we can relax, but we are so happy. I went up to the nursery today and looked at some of the baby girl clothes I've been hanging onto for about 6 years and thought about little Meredith (that's the name we've had picked out since before Ethan was born.) Now to get through the next 4 months of waiting!