Our First Adoption Story--The Arrival

On Friday evening (Jan 23) we received a call from our birth mother to let us know that she had been in and out of false labor for two days. We needed to prepare to leave on a moment's notice. We tried to tie up a few loose ends, but really it was very hard for me to focus on the details of packing when my heart was anticipating the pending arrival of our son. I was very grateful that I had made lists to follow when my mind was in a calmer state.

Then on Sunday morning, Sam arrived back at the house after his early morning meetings at the church. We usually have a 20 minute window when he comes home from his meetings, then we leave again for church together. He had been home only 5 minutes when our caller ID showed that our birth mother was again calling. She had been having contractions for three days at that point, and she was going to the hospital to see if they would admit her. She and her mom would call us once they arrived at the hospital. In the mean time, they recommended that we pack up and leave for the airport, then wait for another phone call before we checked into a flight. Before we left for the airport, I had a sense that whether or not the hospital admitted our birth mother, we needed to get on the next available flight. I would much rather wait on the other end of our plane ride than to keep wondering if we were going to make it at the last minute.

It took us an hour and a half to prepare for our extended leave. Call the neighbor that would be checking on our house. Call church members and let them know that we would not be there to fulfill prior commitments that day. Clean out the refrigerator of all left overs. Arrange for a rental car at the airport. Change our flight to the next possible departure. Pack any last-minute items. Double check that we have everything included on the lists for the baby. Triple check that we have the camera. Needless to say, it was a complete frenzy. We felt grateful that we were together when we received that phone call, because at least we didn't have to travel across town before we could meet up and tackle the details together. I would have been a wreck if Sam hadn't been there from the very beginning to share in the details we had to work through. And we got everything done. Except for tidy up the house. We will be greeted by the tornado that we left when we arrive home. Sam was building shelves in a closet on Saturday, and we had a lot of things pulled out in an attempt to organize and rearrange for David's arrival.

We were able to get on the 1:30 flight. As we went through security, they saw us approaching with a car seat. The lady directed us to the "family" lane and said, "Kids this way." In my all-business mindset, I looked over and replied, "It's not a kid yet." Then just kept marching forward. Sam slowed me down a bit at that point, and we had a good laugh at that notable quotable. There were many people that saw us with the car seat, and peeked over the hood with an adoring look. That quickly turned to confusion when they saw it was empty and neither of us was carrying the baby in arms. Sometimes we explained (and were awarded with much oohing and awwwing for our explanation) and other times they just wondered. We boarded on time, and our flight arrived 20 minutes early at 5:25. It felt like a forever wait to drag our luggage and car seat all over the airport before we finally arrived at our rental car. We left the airport at 6:30 and arrived at the delivery room by 7:30. It wasn't until we were in the car that I realized we should probably call the birth mother to see how she was progressing. At that point, she was still walking the hospital halls to keep the contractions coming.

We arrived at the hospital, and within an hour intense labor was under way. It seemed like slow going. She was only dilated to a 3 and I was preparing for an all-nighter as they gave her the epidural (which we really wished had been more effective!). Two and a half hours later, they checked her again and she was at a 10. Now we just had to hang tight for Dr. Ho to arrive. It took only a few pushes and our son arrived in this wide world. Sam cut the umbilical cord just like a Daddy should. David's apgar score was 8 at 1 minute after birth and 9 at 5 minutes after birth. And within an hour, he downed 2 oz of formula. Of course this just confirmed our suspicion that we had been blessed with a perfect little boy.

By the time we had all greeted the new baby and moved from delivery to post-natal care, it was 3 am. We were very sleepy but kept going on adrenaline. The head nurse that night happened to be a personal friend of the birth mother and her family through church. She graciously arranged for Sam and I to stay in a room adjacent to the birth mother and David. It was nice to not have to drive anywhere before we found rest for our weary heads. But reality set in when we were invited to the 3:30 am bath and feeding. Of course we wouldn't have missed that for anything!

The next day we spent the morning in the hospital with David in our room while the birth mother rested. It was fun to be just the three of us together for the first time. We just gawked. That afternoon, we left the hospital to run some errands. We returned briefly that evening to kiss him goodnight, then went and stayed in an apartment arranged for us by the birth mother's family, just around the corner to where they live. We returned the next morning to take everyone home after their discharge. We somehow escaped without an instruction manual, but David has no problem with letting us know when he's hungry or needs to burp. The rest of the time he is content to sleep, sleep, and sleep some more. Each day his eyes are getting wider and brighter, and we get a few more minutes of alert time with our son. We couldn't be happier!