By Rebecca, adoptive mother
When I think about the moment we decided to pursue adoption, I remember feeling anxious, scared, and most of all excited about the possibilities that were to come. The idea that I would be a parent at any time was a feeling that I would describe as a balloon getting ready to burst! I was over the moon excited.
But of course my husband and I knew that we were going to have to revert back to the days when we were children and our Mom’s would tell us “You must be patient.” The process itself was not as hard as I thought and honestly I think we took the most time gathering our pictures and writing our profile, that American Adoptions were just waiting for us to finish. When we finally felt our profile was complete we submitted it and on June 8th 2015 we were in the “waiting period”.
However, a short week later we had received a call that we were a match for potential birth parents. We turned that down for personal reasons but we were very surprised that we had gotten a call so quickly! But our story doesn’t end there!
One week after that call, as my husband was six hours away from home on a business trip and I was driving on a major roadway to see my cousin’s new home, I got the phone call that changed our lives forever. The woman on the other end – Lara from American Adoptions Texas – was calling to tell me that we were matched with a beautiful young lady that chose us to be parents to a baby girl that was born the day before! We had been active a mere 17 days and here we are chosen to be PARENTS!!!
My husband and I recount the day we got the call about our 6lb 1 oz. baby girl almost every day. I don’t think we’ve stopped smiling even to this day. The calls to our families and friends were just filled with so much love for us and this baby that we hadn’t even met yet, it was almost overwhelming! My husband immediately left where he was and drove through the night to get to me. We left our home and headed to Texas by plane. When we got to our baby we had been awake a total 36 hours!
When we walked into the hospital nursery and met and held her it was such a feeling of peace. This was it; this was our missing piece, a tiny baby girl named Madeline. All of our fertility struggles and tears were put to rest. This was the moment we had been waiting for. Madeline needed us to be patient and here she was an answer to what we had been working for since we had gotten married.
Madeline needed to be monitored in the hospital for a couple weeks which meant we had to make Texas our home for a bit. Kathie and Lara from American Adoptions checked in on us frequently and worked hard to make sure we felt comfortable with the paperwork that was to follow in regards to finalizing Madeline’s adoption. Kathie was patient with me as I took on becoming a mother literally overnight and trying to balance being away from home for a bit. She was always available. Even now almost six months later I can still call Kathie to just talk about Madeline. I send them pictures too – you know, to brag!
If you are reading this, I want you to remember this: You will be a parent! It’s not a matter of how now, it’s a matter of when. As you wait for your call for your match or try and decide whether adoption is the route you should go, remember that love makes a family and out there in this big fish bowl of a world is a baby that needs you just as much as you want them.
