Our Rollercoaster Ride: Part 2-Instant Parents

(Read Part 1)

We set up a meeting with the potential birthmother around the 1st of May. We met with her armed with a list of questions and our profile for her to review. It was awkward, yet comfortable. She discussed her reasons for giving the baby to a nice family and we told her our story. We left the meeting with excitement, anticipation, and anxiety. She was going to try to get in to see a doctor, as she had not seen one during the entire pregnancy. She believed that she was due in June. We asked her to keep us posted on the progress. 

In the meantime, we met with our social worker to find out what we needed to do legally, in case this worked out. There were a lot of things 'to do' that kept me busy the next few days. The birthmother got a doctors appointment, and then it got cancelled. She had to go through Medicaid. She finally got another appointment in the middle of May. Her sister-in-law was going to call me and tell me how it went.  The hours went by so slowly, I sat by the phone all day.

Finally! The phone rang. I was told that the appointment went well, and that she was 5 centimeters dilated.

WHAT?

They couldn't tell the sex of the baby because it was so large, but she was being admitted and put on monitors.  Her last labor had only lasted 2 hours... she would call me.

My heart went into overdrive. I asked her if we should head that way because we had never "sealed the deal." I didn't know if she wanted us to be the parents or not.  "I think that you should," she said.
It seemed surreal. Was this really happening?!

I flew to Nick's work and asked him to meet me outside. I asked him if he was ready to be a dad.  He blew me off and asked me what the doctor said. When I told him that she was 5 cm dilated, his eyes were as big as saucers-- I have video to prove it.

I went back home and threw some things in a bag. He followed and we loaded up the dogs and headed on our way-a 2 hour destination. On the way, we talked about names and only came up with a girl one. We also called close friends and family to tell them what was happening.

"Should we head that way?" Everyone asked, we didn't know.

We called the social worker again to make sure that we handled everything correctly and we called the lawyer that we had only spoken to a few times and told him that we needed paperwork STAT!
We met Nick's parents so they could take the dogs and off we went to the lawyers office.

When we were waiting on the necessary paperwork, I got a text that our birthmother's water had broken. 

"We need to go NOW," I pressed.

I was NOT going to miss this! We grabbed the papers and headed to the hospital. It took some time to get in, as this was a unique situation, but we were finally admitted back. The nurse that was working happened to be a high school friend of nicks and a sorority sister of mine. She took us to the birthmother's room.

Her first question was, "Do you still want the baby?" She was afraid that we wouldn't because it had happened so soon. We answered with an emphatic, "Yes!" She wanted to make sure that the paperwork was handled and we assured her that it was.

We were then taken to a room next door. This room had belonged to a mother that had to be moved to ICU, but they could not put another mom in it because she was still being monitored from there. So we got a large room instead of staying in the lobby. What a little blessing from God! The nurse showed us another monitor which was hooked up to our birthmother and told us how to read it and how to know when the baby had been born. 

At this point, the only other people there were Nick's parents.  We were all pacing the floor, when suddenly I saw the monitor and called Nick over, "I think the baby was just born!" We ushered Nicks mom and dad out the door, as the nurse promised to bring the baby straight to us. We will never forget what the back of that hospital room door looked like. 

Then it opened...and in came the nurse pushing a cart with a baby in it-- OUR BABY!

"Do you want to know what she is? Oops!" She said,  "A GIRL!!!"

After that it was complete madness.  We had a 9lb healthy baby girl.  People came and went all night.  We were ecstatic, so happy that even sleeping on a labor and delivery bed could not wipe the smiles off of our faces. This sweet angel had come to us only 2 days before Nick's birthday.
It was indescribable. We did still have 5 days that the birthmother or birthfather could change their minds, but we tried to put that out of our heads-- we just focused on our daughters sweet chunky face!

We didn't have anything for her. Nick had to leave the hospital to purchase a car seat. The nurse told us that we could put our own clothes on her if we wanted, and I felt like the worst mom ever. We went shopping to get her some clothes. That poor baby wore the hospital t-shirt for the entire first day of her life. 

This was an experience that we will never forget.  It seems like yesterday. I know that God brought us our daughter, because she is a piece of me. We left the hospital and had birthday cake for the two loves of my life. It was such a whirlwind, and so incredibly amazing. 

And that is how we became instant parents... just add water!

I try to include all important details in our story, but quite frankly, that would take days to type.  So please don't hesitate to send questions my way!  And stay tuned for the next chapter of our story.

Believe it or not, God had many more surprises in store!

(Read Part 3!)