In 2014, my husband and I decided we were ready to grow our family. We knew adoption was in our hearts and we were ready to pursue it. We completed the home study, did the physicals, the interviews, put together our family profile books and then we waited. We were matched by May of 2015. We had 48 hours notice as the birth mother was already showing signs of labor. We ran to Target and  Buy Buy Baby and bought everything we needed to bring home our new baby. We bought plane tickets, booked a hotel and rental car and flew to Nevada.  Once we landed we went straight to the hospital to meet our birth mother and newborn son. The social worker met us there and told us she wanted 24 hours with him first and to come back the next day. Our hearts sunk but we remained optimistic. The next day we returned to the hospital and finally met her. We answered all her questions and tried to make her feel comfortable. It was such a whirlwind. We left feeling so positive, that meeting went well. We were going to meet the baby soon. After we got back to the hotel, the social worker called. I know she said a lot of things but all I heard was “decided to not place the baby for adoption.”  We were heart broken. I couldn’t bear to go home without a baby so we spent a few days traveling talking and praying if adoption was what we should be pursuing.  When we did come home, we packed up all the baby items we had ordered and returned them. We went back to waiting.

 

In July of 2015 we were contacted by a family member. They knew of a family that had recently had a baby and were considering an adoption plan as their current situation was not conducive to raising a child. We sent over our family profile book and spoke with family to pass along our details and convey how excited we were to be considered to adopt their son. Ultimately, the parents also decided to parent so we were back at square 1 for the 2nd time in 3 months.

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September 4th, I received a call from our agency. They had a new match for us and gave me a little bit of background information including some medical history. I called Ryan at work and told him we were going to be parents, this was it. I felt it. He raced home and we called our agency back and formally "accepted" the match. On September 27th, we got the call our birth mother went into labor. We booked our flights and raced to CA. We met our sweet baby Grayson when he was 12 hours old. We spent 5 days in the NICU for some birth complications and utero drug exposure but ultimately he was happy and healthy and he was OURS! We spent 3 more weeks in a hotel room in CA until we were given word that our paperwork had been processed and we were able to come home. On May 24th, 2016 Grayson's adoption was finalized and we now celebrate his "Gotcha Day!"

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