It is Emma again!  If you know me, I barely have time to wash my hair, let alone write a blog post! Sorry it has taken so long for my second post to arrive. As I type right now, I am sitting outside of my nephew’s school waiting for his talent show to begin. Any-who, back to business! Check out my first blog post, Unexpectedly Expecting to catch up if you have not already read it!

After the phone call had been made to this sweet little child’s caseworker, things were moving much quicker than we expected. We were asked if we have a car seat and told that she was going to work on getting us to be able to pick the baby up from the hospital. WHAT??!!! I had barely even told all of our immediate family member and we were going to get a baby from the hospital that day?! Luke and I went to lunch, which was already planned and then were headed to the store to get stuff to bring a baby home. We literally did not have one thing that would equip us to have a child at our house.

While we were eating, we received a call back from the caseworker that she could not get us approved to pick up the baby, she would have to be placed in an emergency foster care placement and that she would call us after court the next day. After this bit of news, which was so very anticlimactic, the next few weeks would continue to follow that pattern.

The next morning we were given a phone call to inform us that the case had been transferred to a different county and we would be getting a new caseworker to contact. Not only did we have a new caseworker, there was also a separate organization involved, 30 Days to Family. This organization is amazing, but caused the process of getting this precious baby into our home to be much longer. As an organization, they work to place children with family members. This means every family member over the age of 21 had to be contacted. The caseworker had to do extensive research on her family from both her mother and fathers side.

Luke and I began clearing out our second bedroom, but very slowly. I was trying so hard not to get my hopes up, knowing that both parents have large families and any one of them could be willing to take the baby and we would be off the table as an option. I would like to think I was keeping a brave face. Acting as if I would be fine if she was placed with her family member, but the longer I thought about her, the more I fell in love. So much love and I still had not even met her! We were entering in the beginning of the application process for fostering, we were attending meetings for her, we decided what we would call her, and we had still not met her!

17 days… we had to wait 17 days to get the answer we had been waiting for. Of course, during this time, my phone never left my side. I was impatiently waiting to hear who the baby would be placed with. Finally, on day 17 I got another phone call, we had been chosen! All we needed was a judge signature and she would be coming to our house!! Easy, right?! It was a Thursday and we were told we would be getting another member of our household before Tuesday!

We kicked it into high gear! We painted, we bought a crib, we bought clothes, formula, bottles, all of the accessories that were mandatory for a newborn and waited. And waited. And waited. I refused to leave the house Monday or Tuesday, knowing that I could get the call at any moment that they were on their way with her. We were not so lucky. It was Wednesday, when I finally talked myself into leaving to go work at my business, which had been taking the back burner to the baby preparation when the caseworker called. I had barely even made it in the door of the shop when I got the call, packed back up and headed home.

A few hours later, she was there! I will never forget those moments. Staring out of the living room window, waiting for the car to pull up, finally seeing it and rushing out the door. I will never forget the tears as I grabbed the tiny baby from the caseworkers hands. Crying as I tried, but failed to listen to the caseworker walk us through a packet of legal work. Beginning to memorize everything about this sweet little girls face. Kissing and holding her.

Our waiting had finally ended. She was in our home, dropped off without any directions, much like having a baby of our own. We were left to parent and love this sweet one.

Luke is working on his first post about adoption, while I work on a post about the first time I heard Luke agree to adoption!

 

Hello all, it’s Emma here to tell you about Luke and I welcoming the first child into our home…this not your typical pregnancy story!

June, 2015 was the start of Luke and I’s first summer in our new home and our first summer off from teaching school together. We had packed the summer calendar full of activities, weddings, mini trips, and had just been home from vacationing with my parents a day or so, (thanks Mom and Dad) when things took an unexpected, emotional, and exciting turn.

ALL of Luke and I’s friends had recently announced their pregnancies, were beginning to try, or had just had a baby. We were constantly hearing, when will you two be starting your family? After a fun family planning trip with Luke, we decided we were waiting until the summer of 2017 to try to start our family. I confidently agreed to the plan, but prayed and hoped for something different for our family. I cannot count the amount of times when asked when we would start our family I would say, “We are going to start trying next summer, but I’m just waiting for someone to drop a baby off at our door step.” Though this may sound silly, keep reading to hear how the 21st century stork brought a baby into our home and into our hearts….

I will never forget the morning we learned we might be parents or the events that shortly followed. Luke was up, working in the back yard before it got too hot. I, on the other hand, am not one for early rising during the summer (okay fine, ever) and was lounging around. I finally moseyed my way to the bath tub to start my day around 11am. I was in the bath when I checked my phone. I noticed, while I was sleeping in I had received what would come to be the most important call of my life thus far.

I saw a missed call and a voicemail from a contact of mine that I had not heard from in awhile. My heart sank. I knew what the call would be about. As I listened to the voicemail, the knot in my stomach got tighter and tighter. The voice sternly said, “Emma, call me as soon as possible.”

Two weeks earlier, I had learned of a sweet baby that had been brought into the family of the voice on my voicemail. From the day I learned of this child, I prayed for her. Knowing that my return call would no doubt be something about this child, I continued to take a bath and ran through all the possible things I might hear when I returned the phone call. I came up with 2 scenarios.

1. “Emma, we found someone to take care of her! Thank you for praying for us.”
2. “Emma, are you interested in taking a 2 week old baby?”

After I came up with these to possible scenarios, my sweet husband came in to take a break from the heat. I nervously called him in to the bathroom to tell him of my mornings events. I will never forget how nervous I was to start this conversation with him. This wasn’t our life plan…would he think I was crazy…or even more scary, would he agree to take a baby if the voice reported scenario #2? I felt as if I was a child again and asking my parents for permission to do something I knew they would say no to instead of a confidant, young, married woman.

As I reflect back on this moment in time, the things I remember seem so silly. Luke was covered in grass and leaning on the white door trim. I remember wanting to tell him, “Stop leaning on the door way, you’re going to get grass all over it,” but not wanting to upset him before this conversation. I remember the way he looked at me when he said, “This was not the plan Emma,” and the hurt I felt and my heart breaking for a baby I had never met. I remember the way he looked when he finally said, “We can foster, but that is it. We cannot adopt.”

The only thing I couldn’t tell you, is what changed his mind. Why he went from such a strong no, this isn’t our plan, to we can foster this baby. I cannot remember the words that I spoke to him, the words that I so carefully planned out while waiting for him to come inside. The only explanation to Luke’s quick change of heart is God. God had a plan for Luke and I, God was giggling as we sat months before on our family planning date, God gave me the words to reassure to my husband that now was our time. How amazing is our God, a God who can answer my prayers.

I could not give myself any time to process the conversation we had just had or let the reality of what had just happen sink in. I had to call right away before I lost my courage. I dialed the number and waited impatiently to hear what the voice on the other end would tell me. Did I just have the most emotional and challenging conversations with my husband over a scenario #1? Did I just become a mother figure to an infant? The voice from my voicemail confirmed what my new fate would be. I was given the number of the people I could contact if I was interested in fostering a 2 and a half week old baby, who I knew nothing about and who I had never seen, but I already loved.

The next few hours and days, and even weeks of Waiting for Baby were very challenging. I cannot wait to share the events and emotions that we experienced in the next blog post.