[PetersMom]

Wow! Your's is probably the most unusual adoption story I think I've ever read. Talk about how networking works (I'm sure that's not what you intended at all!).

Congratulations on your daughter's first birthday!

[DanniGirl]

Thanks PetersMom... I forgot to add that as it turned out, my Dh ened-up never needing to use that tube of Liquid Nails he had sent me after...... It still sits under our kitchen cabinet unused

Danni

[ANGELLE]

We applied with our agency in December of 2001. We got approved on Valentine's Day in 2003. I got the call at work around 2:00 in the afternoon on August 13, 2003. It was a big surprise. The only thing I can remeber is that it was going to be a boy and the birthmom was due on October 9 and she chose us to be his parents. We met her the following week.

They induced labor on October 9, 2003. It was the longest and happiest day of our lives. We went met her at the hospital and waited all day. Finally he was born at 6:40 pm and my husband and I got to go in the nursery and hold him. We took him home the following day.

[lmdsykes]

I loved reading all your stories. We are still waiting for Our CALL, but your stories gave me a real boost since I've been in this very sad mood the past few days.
Hope soon I can post the story of when we got our call........

Thanks to all of you for sharing!

[goin'batty]

I was hoping that a nice, lighthearted thread would help make everyone feel a little better!

[2boyz1girl]

I think I'm the first fost/adopt parent to write in, so I hope that's okay. My dh and I had just finished our licensing for therapeutic foster care on November 2, '02. We were planning on taking a girl between the ages of 5-10 with behavioral problems. I was mopping the kichen floor the day before Thanksgiving when the call came from our agency asking if we would be interested in a alcohol and THC exposed, newborn baby girl. She was the first newborn our agency had ever received from social services in 13 years. I was so excited that I loaded my two sons up and rushed to the hospital to see her. My dh worked at the hospital so he met me at the nursery. There were a couple of babies in there, but I couldn't figure out which one was her. Then my hubby went into the NICU (he knew some of the nurses) just in time to hear one of the security guards tell the nurses that if anybody comes looking for this baby -- she doesn't exist. Luckily, they knew we were coming and she did exist. There had been a restraining order placed on her bmother, and the nurses were calling her "Salley Annonymous." Our dd had been born 5 weeks early, and only weighed 4 1/2 lbs. She was the tiniest baby I had ever held and had all of these monitors and tubes everywhere, but was beautiful even then. We were allowed to take her home the day after Thanksgiving. We had no idea of the journey that was to come. Her bmother's rights were terminated last Oct., and her bfather relinquished the day he was scheduled to start termination trial last April. She is doing amazingly well considering her circumstances. She is still beautiful, and developing right on track. Social services goal for her adoption finalization is Sept. 30th

[momtutu]

I was at school (I am a 4th grade teacher) the day before school was scheduled to start when my husband called. He said sit down we need to talk. When he said the agency called I started to cry because I knew that this was THE CALL. He told me that there was a baby boy in the hospital who weighed only 1 lb. 3oz. at birth and was currently at 2 lb. 9oz. That agency waited to contact us until they knew he had a good chance of coming home from the hospital. Needless to say I was scared to death of the implications from a premature birth, but excited at the same time. I told my husband that we needed time to pray about our decision. So we hung up the phone and I went to talk to my friends. My friends and I had an impromtu prayer meeting at school and at the end one of them looked up and said call your husband because that is your son in the hospital. I immediately went to the phone. When I called my husband I found him in the Family Medical Leave office at his job applying for leave because he also knew that this was our son. We called back the agency and they wanted us to meet his Bmom the next day which was the first day of school. My principal was soooo gracious. She said GO! We met his bmom on Friday August 9, 2003 and then went to the hospital to meet Timothy for the first time. He was so tiny and I couldn't hold him because he was so very fragile. I was even afraid to touch him because I had a very bad cold. The nurses in the NICU were wonderful. They showed my husband the best way to touch a premature baby that is comforting for them. He put his hands into the incubator, one hand on his head and one hand one his bottom. He said he felt Timothy jump under his hands and a strange heat flowed through his hands, the monitors immediately started registering positive numbers. The nurses standing with us around his incubator were amazed. They said they had never seen his monitor numbers look so good. He knew his daddy had arrived. We visited him in the hospital every day until he came home Sept. 26, 2003. He is now 14 months old, 10 months adjusted age and weighs 15 lb. 5oz. He has struggled to put on weight but he is gorgeous and happy. We can not go out in public with him without someone commenting on what a happy beautiful baby he is. I can't wait to do it all again! Lisa

[icunurse]

*sigh* I love hearing these stories...

We had always heard that you will get "the Call" when you least expect it and I guess it was true. We had already been a part of several situations where we weren't chosen or we had decided not to be placed for consideration and had a failed match in October 2003. Needless to say, we were getting both anxious and feeling a bit negative, like it would never happen. In mid-Dec, on a Tuesday, our SW called to say that the situation we had been waiting to hear about wasn't going to happen, as the potential bmother couldn't choose a couple, so everyone would be "released". Great. But she had another situation. After hearing about it, I called my husband and first thing the next day, we called to say that we would like to be considered. On Thursday, I was in the shower and heard my cell phone go off (which was weird because I usually don't leave my phone on and never take it upstairs). Well, I look to see who would call and it was the SW, saying to call her back in about 2 hours (she had a meeting and then lunch). To this day, I still don't know why she didn't call my home number. Anyway, after listening to the message about 5 times and playing it for my husband, I was already teary and sure that, because a decision had been made so soon, it wasn't us. After 2 hours, I left a voicemail with the SW and she called back about a half-hour later. I must have sounded too happy (trying to compensate for my sadness) because she said,"Oh, "Sue" called you already?" As soon as she said that, I knew we were chosen, as "Sue" was the match-meeting coordinator.
Still following my pessimistic nature, I didn't want to believe that it might work. The potential bmother sounded like too good of a match (she sounded just like me). So, our first meeting was set up for my birthday and I told my husband, "it will work if she wishes me a happy birthday. She seems very detail-oriented and organized and, if I were her, I would notice the fact in our profile sheet." Needless to say, he thought I was crazy, but I needed "a sign". Our first meeting went great, it was very comfortable and better than we could ever have hoped. At the end, we all pulled out our planners to set up a second meeting and, as her SW said, let's see...today's the --...", "T" looked up at me and said,"That's right, today's your birthday. Happy Birthday." Hope had now entered the building...
"T" was to be induced and the day before we shared a conversation of feelings, fears, and tears (and I'm not usually like that....I guess adoption changes you On the day of induction, she said that she would call us. We waited and fielded calls from everyone wanting an update. Finally, close to 6pm, she called to say she had given birth about a half-hour before and could we still come to the hospital? We asked her in at least 5 different ways if she was sure that she wanted us there and then raced to the hospital. We walked in to see her holding him and after about a minute, she asked me if I wanted to hold him. She placed him in my arms and she and I both cried a bit.
We feel that we are the luckiest people to have had such a great adoption experience and to have both our son and his bmother in our lives. We're hoping that maybe we'll get another great match when we start trying for a second child next year. It has led this pessimist to have to believe that there are happy endings after all.

[jkesmom2003]

Hi, Here's how it goes for us.. the BP's narrowed the selection down to two couples, so we went to the hospital on Thursday and met with them (she'd delivered Justin via c-section seven and a half weeks early and was still in the hospital). We felt like we had really connected well with them, could have stayed with them forever, but finally had to leave after about an hour and a half. They wanted to decide that evening but it was too hard for them. Rec'd a call at work on Friday, SW told me not to get too excited, they were really struggling to decide which family to choose but hoped to figure it out before the weekend was over. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKK!!! (BTW, my dad, my husband and I all had a supernatural feeling this boy was OUR boy! but were afraid to believe...)

DH had to work Saturday, and my mother and I decided to go shopping, running around, whatever we could to keep busy until the decision. Decided to all go out to an early lunch and then go our ways for the day. As soon as we got to the restaurant and sat down, the cell phone rang. SW asked me if I was driving or sitting down and told us we were chosen! I immediately started to cry, DH thought we didn't get him.. The waitresses were crying and the people around us must have thought we were crazy. It was amazing! We had to wait two hours to go see him in the hospital for the first time and the second I looked at him all the pain of the 10+ year wait was gone.

Since he was a preemie, he stayed in the hospital for a couple of weeks, so I didn't stop working until he was home. Let me tell you what a rush it was to go to work on Monday and show the photo album of MY son... to a bunch of people who didn't know I was "expecting".. It was all so exciting!!!

Now we are quickly approaching his one year old birthday and he's beginning to walk! I never knew I could love like this.

Thanks to all who are sharing their stories... it's a lot of fun to hear how it all works out!