Where It All Began... Part 1

I can still remember where I was on July 23rd, I was sitting at my desk at the law firm working and received a phone call from the greene county CD's office saying that had a baby boy who was just a few days old and needed placement for him.  Of course I was ready to say yes immediately.  But I asked her some questions and told her I would need to speak with Boyd and call her back.  One of the things the social worker told me was that his case was a very sad situation that involved homicide and that he would more than likely never go back, and their was no family that wanted him because he was born with achondroplasia (Dwafism).  Again, I was psyched.  So I spoke with Boyd, and he was a little concerned about a "special needs" child.  I called the social worker and told her we would like to come and meet him and talk with the nurses.  I met with Boyd and we headed to Springfield to meet this little guy.  We walked into the nursery and saw him in his crib.  OH MY WORD!   I was instantly in love with this baby.  LOVE at first sight.  I was in tears as I held him for the first time.  Then Boyd held him and even though he was incredibly nervous he fell in love too. 

We had to leave for a couple of hours because we were in the middle of buying a new home and we had to go and sign some paperwork.  I hated leaving our baby at the hospital while we did our errands.  When we got back to the hospital, the nurse showed us how to give him a bath and sent us home with enough diapers and formula to get us through the weekend.  Then she wheeled me and baby "A" down to the back of the hospital where Boyd picked us up.  It was so cool.  They treated me just like the birth mother.  The nurse hooked his car seat in and closed the door.  Boyd and I just looked at eachother.  What do we do now?  He hadn't really been around a baby much and had a little.  But there we were on our own.  We headed to his mom's house and our niece Stepfanie met us there.  She is a NICU nurse, so that was AWESOME!  She helped me a ton.  After a few hours we headed home.  HOME with a baby boy. 

A week later we had to take him to Springfield for a visit with his bio mom.  It was so hard dropping him off, even for just a hour.  I was so confused why she was getting a visit period.  I was told by the social worker that day that there was a bio aunt that might be interested in taking him.  Uhhhh...what?  I was told that he would be going up for adoption and that no family wanted him.  Well, that apparently wasn't true.  So that was the first time my heart was broken and dream was shattered. 

Another couple months passed and we met up with Baby "A"'s bio sister.  We didn't let her know it was her brother, but they wanted her to  be able to see him to see how she reacted.  She was not happy about him being there.  She was a really cute girl, but it was opposite they did not need to be in the same placement.  So they state started the adoption process on the sister.

A couple weeks later, we got a different social worker.  She told me that the paternal family had contacted her and they were in fact interested in him.  So they started the paperwork to get them interviewed.  But she did give me hope that it was the "team's" decision in the end where they baby went.

Another couple weeks passed and I got another devastating phone call.  It has been found that our baby was an Indian child.  That meant that the tribe would take the baby and place him with foster parents within the tribe.  Seriously?  Heart broken, dream shattered. 

We had a meeting that next week with the social worker from the tribe.  I was sick to my stomach as we waited for that time to approach.  Finally we met in the CD office and the social worker was there by phone.  The social worker explained our situation, and told him a little bit about the baby.  Once he learned that Baby "A" was speical needs, he said they did not have the means to support a medical baby and that they were ok with us keeping him until  his bio family was ready to take him.  That it was in their best interest that the bio family get first chance.  Do you remember in the last paragraph when we were told that the "team" would get to make that decision?  Well now that the tribe was involved they trumped everything that the state did.  So although we were happy we got to keep him a while longer, we were sad that it would more than likely not be forever.  Again, broken hearted, dream shattered.

In  the next months we were just so confused and so hurt.  In the mean time we got another phone call for a little 2 year old girl.  We got her November.  What a sweetie she was. 

I got a phone call in January that his bio family wanted to come and visit him in January.  I'm going to be honest, I was sick!  I dreaded it so bad.  We agreed to meet with them in Springfield at Chilli's.  1:00 rolled around and we saw the aunt, uncle, and cousins walk in.  So away we went.  But you know what... We fell in LOVE with them.  They were such wonderful people.  What a relief it was.  We made a date to meet again in February and this time the aunt that wanted him was going to come up and visit too. 

February rolled around and she came and again we fell in love with her also.  She was so sweet.  Even though I would be devastated for him to leave, I knew he would be loved unconditionally.  We waited patiently, or maybe not so patiently for her to make a decision on what she wanted to do.

In February we got a phone call about another little baby that needed a pre-adoptive placement.  Oh my.  Do we put our heart on the line again?   Of course we do.  So we went and picked her up.  It was pretty crazy for several months with 3 kids who were 2 and under.  But the Lord helped us out.

I'm going to quit here and pick it up again in a few days.  I didn't realize how mentally and emotionally draining this was to re-live again.  But I want to make sure I have it all down.

To Be Continued...