The time had come for an interim visit with our case worker, so I called her to schedule one. She wanted us to come in right away, so on Halloween, 2006, we met with her. She started the meeting asking us how everything was going, and I said "Fine, but what can we do to get ourselves out there more?" And she handed us a card.
Inside it read:
"Dear Richard and Elesa,
My name is Jennifer. And I have chosen you to be the adoptive parents for my baby. He is due December 13th, 2006. Many Many Thanks.
- Jennifer"
I started to cry. Richard started to cry. I was so flooded with emotion I thought I might not ever STOP crying. Even now, reading it again, it chokes me up a little. She also included an ultrasound picture.
We looked at it a LOT.
So, yeah. It was a pretty exciting Halloween. We celebrate Halloween for two reasons now. We drove around and told our families and cried and laughed and EEK! We were beside ourselves!
A few days later we went back to LDS family services to meet Jennifer and her parents. We stood for a few minutes outside the office door. Terrified to go in. Afraid that when she met us she would change her mind. Or we would say something dumb and mess everything up. But we worked up the courage and went in and before long all our fears were gone. Talking to Jennifer was so easy and natural. We felt so comfortable talking with her and her parents and a feeling of peace settled over us. Jennifer was going to be our Birth Mother. We loved her already.
And she was due in about 6 weeks, so things got pretty busy after that. We had a bunch of baby showers, and worked to get the nursery ready, and ourselves ready and read all the parenting books we could find. We went out to lunch with Jennifer and some of her siblings and parents at Mimi's Cafe and had a great time.
The due date drew near and we carried a cell phone around with us everywhere. But the doctor kept pushing the delivery date back further and further. Eventually he said he would definitely induce labor on December 21st, so we went to bed on the 2oth confident that our baby would be born the next day. And so we left the cell phone down stairs. So when Jennifer called to say she was in labor and was going into the hospital, we didn't hear the phone. And when Harrison was born at 4:51 am on Dec. 21st we were snoring in our beds!!!
Of course, as soon as we woke up we got the message and called her back and headed for the hospital to see Jennifer. Her mom was there as well, and we spent a while just basking in the joy of a new life. I don't have the words to describe holding Harrison for the first time. I don't know how to explain the love we feel for Jennifer. But we had a great time that day, enjoying the company, holding Harrison, and watching breast feeding videos, which were embarrassing and useless. Then we went home so that Jennifer could have her time with him, uninterrupted by us. Have we mentioned that she is awesome???
I'm afraid that will have to be the end. I want to write about placement, but it is emotional for me, and I am afraid that I won't do it justice. All I can say is that placement happened. And we took Harrison home. And we love this little boy more than anything. Oh boy, I gotta go and get some tissues......