September 14, 2018
The next morning we had breakfast at the house and then headed over to the hospital. Every time we arrived at the L&D unit we had to ask for our baby to be brought from the nursery to our room. As we spent time with her in the room we also still had massive amounts of papers to go through and phone calls to make to have this adoption go through smoothly. We were calling lawyers, social workers, insurance, friends, and our agency for guidance and advice. After our time there in the morning, we went back to the house for lunch and to spend time with Brooklyn. We were due back to the hospital that afternoon to sign papers to make her officially ours.
Over the last couple of days we were thinking about what we would name our daughter. We had not really discussed any baby names yet and knew that we would probably have some time to choose a name after we were matched. In this case, we barely had 24 hours so it was a bit more stressful than we anticipated. Some of our individual top names were ones that we couldn’t agree on. My list was small and pretty much nixed so we narrowed down Matt’s list to a few possibilities. We sent names to a family member who shared scripture meanings and through her help and the help of google we were able to find a first and middle name that we both liked and that held special meaning for our daughter Kendall Marie.
Kendall means thankful and Marie means wished for child. Marie also means sea is bitterness which initially I did not like but as I thought more about it I realized that we have been in a bitter season waiting for this baby and through our miscarriage and infertility journey. So her name was fitting and by the time we were ready to officially make her ours she had a name.
In Utah, birth mothers can sign their relinquishments at 24 hours after birth. So after she signed her papers our caseworkers came into our room to start the signing process with us. Before we signed they did share that the birth mother was open to meeting us. My heart raced once again as I wasn’t sure what I would say or how she would feel but I was also happy to be able to have that moment with her.
After we signed multiple documents Kendall was now one step closer to being officially ours. We let our caseworker Jenna sit in our room with Kendall while another social worker took us to the birth mother’s room.
As we entered the room we met a beautiful woman with light skin, dark hair, glasses, and a big smile. She immediately got up from her bed to give us both hugs. One moment that two mothers who are bonded by a little girl got to share together. I do not know if or when I will ever get that moment again.
We shared with her a little about our family and offered to update her with pictures of Kendall whenever she wanted. We asked her how the birth process went and how she was recovering. She said she had an epidural and the process was uneventful and she was recovering well. She shared about her 3 kids and how including her they all have very loud personalities. She said they were good babies and didn’t cry a lot (which later wasn’t so true of Kendall). We agreed to send her photos after we were home and frequent updates to include an online option to share how Kendall was growing each month. With grateful hearts, we said goodbye and wished her all our best.
We opted to not return back to the hospital that evening after we left so that we could have dinner at the house and prepare for Kendall’s arrival by getting some supplies at the store. The next morning we would be taking her home.
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