Thursday, February 7, 2013

Laughter is born (one of the best stories part 2)

(Note: Please read the previous post because this post will pick up where that one left off)

Friday morning, October 12, started very early. We were pulling stuff out for Garage Sale about 6:30 am (and no word on the baby).

At 1:30 in the afternoon, we were approved as a "waiting family" and at 1:50 in the afternoon, we got the call - the baby boy was born! Within minutes we had a place for Chango to go, people to finish up our garage sale for us, and a promise from my mom that she would go shopping so that we would have diapers and food when we got home.

We grabbed our bags and some snacks and we were off! We sent a couple of texts on our way to hospital. I was shaking from excitement and hunger (I hadn't been able to eat in over 24 hours).

At this point we had been told several times that the birth parents did not want to meet us. The agency chose us and that was all the birth parents wanted to know.

Dawn arrived about 10 minutes after we did with two surprises. The first surprise was that brought along Julie (our adoption specialist who had done all our home studies). The adoption specialists rarely get to come to the hospital, but because ours was such a unique situation and  the fact that she had pulled an all-nighter the night before to make sure we were were approved, she was allowed to come. The second surprise was that we were going to meet the birth father.

We were ushered to elevators and to a small conference room where we briefly met the birth father. We didn't really get to talk during the meeting, but he did. He told us about the birth and explained their reasons behind adoption. We got to shake his hand, see his face, and hear a story that we want Isaac to know.

Then it was time for us to meet our boy. They wheeled him into our room (we were allowed to stay at the hospital with him) and he was so tiny! He was only 2 hours old when we met him. He hadn't even had a bath yet. Dawn and Julie grabbed Jay's phone and started taking pictures for us and I am so glad they did. 
First look at my beautiful baby
and then the tears came, and came, and came. . . 

We got to witness his first bath and I got to give him his first bottle. Our sweet little boy screamed when he was bathed, but calmed immediately when he was warm and fed. We didn't see his eyes for the first couple of days. He had a habit of opening one eye to check out the world and immediately fall asleep again.

His stats were awesome as he aced one test after another. And after two days, we were ready to be discharged.

It is amazing how quickly we were attached to our "Little Man". Right before we were discharged, his birth mom asked to see him again. In, what could be described as the worst 40 minutes of my life, we waited. I was in tears, convinced that once she saw his face, she would decide to keep him. The name "Isaac" meant so much more at that point. We had to be willing to give him up, if that is what God asked of us.

Eventually, he came back to us and we were able to pack up and leave. Our itty-bitty baby in his oversized carseat came home with us to stay.