September 13, 2018
We woke up the next morning and in a rush loaded the car, had a friend pick up the dog, emptied what we could from the fridge and prayed our house would be safe during the hurricane. Cutting it a bit close we made it to the airport and off we went. Our layover was in Minneapolis and we met Grandma Mary there for our flight to Salt Lake City. During the short layover we were making phone calls, wiring money, signing documents, and trying to communicate with friends and family about what was going on. On the flight, I said a lot of prayers as my emotions swirled around in my head. I wrote a letter to the birth mom sharing about our love and thankfulness for her.
Finally, we arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah! As we flew in we could see billows of smoke coming from the mountains as we smelled burning fire. They said there were forest fires in the mountains and that was what we were smelling. We got off the plane and headed to baggage. While we were waiting for our bags I saw a friend from Minnesota who I had only recently met while on a trip there in August. This weekend happened to be silver retreat for Young Living and I had a few friends who were flying into town for the retreat! What a sweet wink from God allowing me to have others to hug and rejoice within the most unusual circumstances.
We loaded our bags into our upgraded Suburban feeling very grateful again since we had a lot of luggage. Our caseworker had been updating us as much as she could about how the birth mom’s labor was progressing. She mentioned that things were slow so if we wanted to go check-in and get some food we should have time. We drove to our townhouse, unloaded, and then left to go to Costco to shop for the necessities. We had three Costco’s to choose from all within the same distance but we chose the one closest to the hospital. I grab my bags just in case we weren’t able to make it back to the house.
We were on the road for maybe 5 minutes when we got the call that the birth mom was dilated to a 10 and it was go time. We rerouted to the hospital and as we were saying a prayer we missed our exit and had to drive up the overpass and take a u-turn to head back. The exit we needed was closed for construction and we could see the hospital from the road. So we had to backtrack again and make another u-turn towards are original exit. Talk about stressful! We made it to the hospital before our caseworker so we couldn’t go into the labor and delivery unit until she arrived.
Once we were escorted onto the unit we were told the baby was born at 2:57pm and she was in the nursery. The birth mom didn’t want any contact with us or the baby so we spent those first moments admiring this new little blessing that was to become ours. I didn’t know if I was going to cry or smile. Leading up to this moment all I could feel were tears but I was more fearful of the meeting with the birth mom than the baby. It was more of a relief to just see this little girl. She was laying under a warmer just 30 minutes old. I didn’t know if I was allowed to touch her or take pictures but I was assured both were ok. I wasn’t really even sure what to do. I laid my hand on her belly and she flinched at my cold touch. I admired her dark hair, squishy face, and tiny toes.
The nurse checked her vitals and said we could feed her. She was wrapped up and handed to me. We sat in a chair together and she drank her first bottle. Matt got to take a turn to hold his new daughter. Shortly after I gave her her first bath. She wasn’t very happy with being in the water but once she was wrapped up she loved having her hair washed.
We stayed for a bit longer just enjoying our first moments with this little girl who was now going to be our daughter until we needed to go get food and make sure grandma and Brooklyn were settled in. We left the hospital and went to Costco where we stocked up on supplies and had dinner. I shared how as awkward as it would have been to meet the birth mom I was sad we were not going to have that closure by knowing what she looked like or getting to know her personality or just thanking her for this loving decision she was making. I was going to have to accept that this was probably not going to happen.
We brought dinner back to the rental house and spent time with grandma and Brooklyn. After we went back to the hospital to fit in one more visit with our new girl before getting to bed. We were not allowed to stay at the hospital overnight but while we were there we had a room assigned to us so we could have privacy while getting to know our baby. It felt weird going to bed at the house that night knowing we now had a new daughter that we would soon be taking home!
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