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At the end of May, the secretary from the school comes running in my room. She can barely contain herself. The birth mother called her last night and left a message on her cell phone. She lets me know that she plans on calling her back first thing. Since we hadn't heard from her in a while, I kind of freak out. Quite honestly, I look all cool, calm, and collected on the outside. On the inside. I am freaking out. I try not to get too excited because I don't want to get my hopes up. Been there done that, and I couldn't stand another heart ache. Nonetheless, the office is directly across from my classroom, so I can hear everything. I am trying to do my morning routine, and I hear her in the other room talking to the birth mother. Freak out #2....again, only on the inside. During the conversation, the birth mother requests our birth mother letter. She had it read to her earlier but has never actually seen it. The secretary sent it to her straight after the conversation.
We wait another week with no word other than that she has said she would like to meet us, and she will contact us. Holy Cow...holy cow. Longest week of my life.
On Friday, we receive a phone call encouraging us to give the birth mother a call. She was just as nervous as we were, and somehow the ball just needed to get rolling. I receive call back from her on Saturday at our friend's wedding, and we set up a phone conversation immediately following the wedding. I am now super nervous. Holy Smokes! What is happening?!?!
On Saturday, we had the most amazing hour long conversation with the birth mother. I will call her K from now on for simplicity sake:) K is incredible! We love her immediately. As we spoke with her, every ounce of nervousness melted away. Somehow knowing we are all new at this and equally nervous canceled out my nervousness. During the conversation, we shared about ourselves...how we met, how we came to the point of wanting to adopt, and much more. We spent a good amount of time getting to know K too. We hung up the phone, having established our first face to face Meeting... the following weekend...memorial day. Bri and I hung up the phone, prayed, held each other, and gave it to the Lord.
Memorial Day finally comes, and we set out on our 2.5 hr car drive. I am now openly freaking out. Holy Smokes x2! This is all so strange...not ordinary! Yet, it all felt so right. We picked up K at her house. When I first saw her, I wanted to tackle her and hug her, but I withheld. A) because I thought it would freak her out B) She was pregnant and all. We ended up going to In N Out for lunch. Her son joined us, but her daughter was out of town with a friend. Lunch was pretty mellow...a lot of small talk. We then decided to go to the park together. I had brought a picture album with me to show K all of our family and friends. Brian primarily ran around chasing little man while K and I got to know each other. It was so incredible! It was like getting to know a new best friend. I shared stories, showed pictures, described family, described our philosophies on raising children. I had the best time. We switched off with little man a little as well, so Bri could get to know K as well.
We left with our heart full...all nervousness I had when arriving was replaced with awe. I was completely in awe of how God was working...how much he loved me to bring someone as amazing as K in my life. I knew no matter what that we would be friends forever....
It was still unclear how it would all pan out, but we knew without a shadow of doubt that God was at work...
Now some pictures... (with permission of course). These are all from our first visit with K after Eliana was born. I have some from Memorial Day, but I will have to search my hard drive for them, so those are to come later.
Isn't K beautiful? This is K's daughter. We will call her giggles:)
She loves her sister!
Giggles! I love her smile! It melted me the first time I met her!
Here's Eliana's brother "Little Man." He is a ball of energy, with this sweet, gentle side of him that melts you. By the end of the first visit, he was cuddling us.
