The Phone Call that Changed our Lives Forever

On Wednesday August 15, 2012, I went to work like any other day. I was on Neurology hospital service and it was a busy day, as I had many consults to complete. I was in the office dictating on the hospital phone a patient History & Physical when I looked down and saw my cell phone ringing. I hit pause on the dictation service and answered my cell phone and our amazing caseworker Jennifer was on the line. After telling her I was at work, I asked her if I needed to "suspend" my dictation job and she said that would be a good idea. I came back on the line and she said, "Well Joanna, I have some great news, you and Colby have been MATCHED!"

I sat there in shock and disbelief for a few seconds and asked over and over, "so what does that mean?" or "so what do we do?" I had talked to Jennifer so many times before on the phone for various reasons, so surprise is an understatement. She then responded, "Well, I'm about to freak you out a little bit. Your birth mother went to the doctor today and they've decided to induce her, so she's on her way to the hospital right now. So depending on when she delivers, you'll need to be in Florida sometime in the next 2 days."

Ummm....recap. We basically were just told, you are going to be parents today, your son will be born today! The most beautiful words I had ever heard, and ones that we had been waiting to hear for a long time.

The next moments involved calling Colby (who had the day off) and was on hole 13 on the golf course and I dropped the bomb on him and he just kept asking me the same thing, "what do we do?" At this point, I told him to finish his round of golf, as it might be the last one for awhile! :) I then came out of the office and announced to the few people that were at the nurses station of the unit that I was on (as all knew we were adopting) and said "It's a Boy!" After a few hugs, tears, and congratulations....panic set in! Don't get me wrong...were we shocked? Yes! Physically, we had lots of things to do, but emotionally our hearts had been prepared and yearned to be parents long before this day.

I went and talked to my fabulous practice managers who essentially put all the paperwork into effect for me to leave on maternity leave, sent my schedulers notification to cancel all of my appointments, and worked with my amazing team of NPs to re-work the schedule so there was coverage in the hospital. I must tell you that work was what I was most nervous about in the adoption process as "planning" really isn't a possibility and I hated to leave work in a bind, but let me just tell you that God's timing was perfect and He timed it right before the new schedules would be issued and appointments made and "damage control" was at the very minimum...hallelujah!

After this, I then had to work the rest of the day! Nuts. I tell you. Nuts! I kept re-reading all of my documentation over and over, making sure prescriptions were right, could barely answer questions that my doc had asked me and basically couldn't get my mind focused on ANYTHING else! I'm going to be a mom was pretty much the only thing reiterating in my head. Glorious!

Colby came up to my hospital so that we could call our birthmother for the first time, as she was getting set up in her hospital room for induction. Nerves, oh my goodness. We dialed and the sweetest voice answered. We got to talk to her briefly, make sure she still wanted "us" for the job, laughed, cried, and sent our well wishes for a safe and smooth delivery. And then...the rest was out of our control. Colby and I made a Buy Buy Baby run for formula, diapers, and a few essentials and notified close family and friends of our excitement. At this point we wanted to tell the world, but needed to wait until paperwork was officially signed.

On Thursday morning, August 16th, we received a phone call that our sweet baby boy had been born at 5:42 that morning and was healthy and beautiful! This meant that we needed to be in Florida by Saturday morning so this day involved flight arrangements, hotel, rental car, and lots of logistics with Colby's work and trying to get him off of work as well.

One of my besties Sommer came over and literally held my hand walking me through things I needed to do. She drove me halfway to my parents to drop off my furry dog children, took me to Babies R us for essentials, and helped keep my scatter brain together. Child care, college fund, nursery, etc. swarmed through my head! And she reminded me all those things could wait...ha! Members of our small group brought us dinner and lunch and showed up at our door with bottles and a few outfits, skyped us to show us how to set up the pack and play, and blessed us immensely with their prayers.

We weren't allowed to see pictures of him until our birthmother would sign paperwork at 48 hours, so my mind dreamed of his sweet face and my heart cried out to God to protect him while we weren't there with him and for peace with the waiting process of paperwork.

Colby went to work on Friday and when he got home, we finished our final packing and then headed to the airport to go get our baby boy...the best feeling in the whole world!

 These were our "baby announcement" pictures that our neighbor took when we got home from work and we texted to family and friends to tell them about our match. I'm clearly in work attire and Colby in golf attire.

 

We'll call this giddiness at its finest. 

 

At Buy Buy baby, I asked Colby to act like he was overwhelmed by the baby stuff. His response was that he does not in fact need to act! :)

 

Buying our first outfits!

 

Colby figuring out the pack and play.

 

This suitcase sure does look different than any one we'd ever packed! 

 

Entering Dallas Love!

 

All ready to go! 

 

Wouldn't want to go through parenthood with anyone else!

 

Whew! We were pretty tuckered after a whirlwind of a few days and finally made it on the plane! 

 

No rest for the weary...Dr. B still had to study while on the plane

 

Celebratory milkshake on our layover 

 

Our last meal with just the two of us!

(To be continued!) Lots of details needless to say, but I want to remember this day and God's provision for us always! The Sunday before our Match day, there was a huge storm that came through and knocked out powerlines, fences, a mess. Hard to believe we went from having no power at our house, having to stay with friends, and stressed by the mess that our neighborhood and house was, feeling sad from the ups and downs of the adoption journey and knowing that we hadn't matched...to pure Joy and the greatest surprise ever! You might notice that my last post was on the day we were leaving to go get him and God had totally used that song to speak to us that He HAD come and He is our Mighty Deliverer!