Our Adoption Story Continued....

First I want to post some links for the adoption agency, just in case anyone would like more information.

CAS Website
http://www.christianadopt.org/
CAS Blog
http://www.christianadoptionservices.blogspot.com/

Part 2

    Waiting was hard, but I'm sure our wait was easier than a couple with no children to keep them occupied.  We created a book about ourselves that the agency used to show potential birth mothers, we couldn't know how many times our book had been looked at and if anyone had even showed interest in us.  We went to all the agency events we could, they were fun because we got to meet other adoptive parents and soon to be adoptive parents.  The months went by, then a year went by and we were still waiting. We knew that our wait would be more than most because we were being more specific with what we were asking for.  The agency's average wait time if you have no specifics was 9 months when we were in the process.
    On Tuesday, February 17 I was at the tax office working and my cell phone rang mid-afternoon.  I did not recognize the number, even with it being the Charlotte area code 704.  I didn't really have anyone other than someone from the agency that would be calling me from a 704 area code and it still didn't register.  Even when I answered the phone and the person on the other end says, "Hi Annice, it's Doris" it still didn't connect that this was CAS calling.  It took me a few seconds for it to register that the Doris on the other end of my phone was The Doris!  She said that they had someone that wanted to meet us and wanted to know if we could come down to Matthews on the afternoon of Thursday the 19th.  I told her that I would have to check with Daniel to make sure because he was already going to be out of work that day because Amber was having some out patient surgery and I would call her back.  She told me to send her a text because she was in Florida.  I immediately called Daniel and left him a message to call me ASAP.  I then called Amber to find out what time the surgery was.  Daniel called me back and I told him, he was so excited just like I was.  My Aunt Jean was at the office during this whole thing, so of course she knew something was going on.  I told her but swore her to secrecy.  We didn't want anyone to know that we were going to meet a potential birth mom just in case it didn't work out.   The next 48 hours were complete torture, my stomach was a wreck.  I prayed and got organized.  I had to arrange childcare for Amelia and Edi.  We were planning on leaving early that morning to go to the hospital and then head to Matthews.  I called a friend of mine that adopted through CAS to talk to her about when they met their birth mom for the first time.  She helped to calm my nerves. 
    Thursday came and we headed to the hospital to be with Amber.  At this point only 4 people knew what was going on that day besides the people at the agency: me, Daniel, Aunt Jean, and Jennifer a friend of mine.  Daniel told Amber when he got to see her before the surgery so she would know that we would have to leave by noon, she was also sworn to secrecy.  Amber did well and we were able to see her before we left.  Our 3 hour travel began and I was even more of a mess.  Everything was running through my head, what will she look like, what will she think of us, will she like us, why is she thinking about placing, what about her family, etc., etc., etc.  We arrived at the agency at 3:00pm, we were early so we sat in the car a few minutes and finally went in at about 3:15pm.  We were put in Doris's office on her comfy couch.  A few minutes later Gretchen one of the pregnancy counselors and a fabulous person came in to talk with us.  She asked us some questions about how we were feeling and we asked her some questions.  Through the conversation we thought we may be meeting a potential birth mom and birth dad.  We asked her if they knew it was a boy, she said "yes".  We asked when the baby was due, she said "any time now".  After about 15 minutes her cell phone buzzed and she said that they were here.  She told us that she was going to be back with them in a few minutes after getting them settled. 
    About 5-10 minutes later Gretchen walked into the room and there were several people behind her.  One of the people behind her was Mrs. Terri and in her arms was a beautiful baby boy.  Oh my God, what was happening?  We thought we were here to meet a birth mom, who’s baby is this.  All these people work at the agency and they're snapping pictures left and right.  We then realize in a matter of seconds that this is "who" we came to meet, our precious baby boy.  Our baby!  Words cannot express the emotions in the room that glorious afternoon.  All the nervousness melted away, I was a Mommy again.  Oh, what a feeling.  After a little while Gretchen sat us down and talked with us about our situation, we went over paperwork, asked questions.  We found out that he was 9 days old, born Tuesday, February 10th. He had been with Mrs. Terri his foster mom since leaving the hospital and the 7 day legal risk period was over, we did not have to worry about the dreaded 7 days between the time the birth mother signs over her rights and her grace period for changing her mind.  His name had been Xander for 9 days because the agency was on the letter X, just like naming hurricanes.  Too Funny!
   How were we going to get him home? We had nothing; no car seat, no diapers.  Gretchen told us about the Target across the street, so we left our precious baby boy with Gretchen and headed to Target.  We bought a car seat, some diapers, clothes, and blankets.  We got back to him as fast as we could, loaded him in the car, and headed for home.  We made phone calls on the way home all the while not telling people what was going on.  We had to tell little white lies in order to be able to have the grandparents be the first ones to find out.  We did tell my aunt, my adoption friend, and Amber over the phone.  Everyone else had to wait until we told our parents.  We decided that we would pull the same surprise trick on them that had been pulled on us.  We called Daniel's parents and asked them if they could keep Amelia on Friday night, they said they could and they would stop by to get her on their way home from work Friday.  We of course did not need them to keep Amelia.  We then called my parents and brother and invited them to dinner on Friday night.  We got home around 9:30pm and our second babysitter for the day was at our house with the girls.  We had called her and asked her to put the cameras outside in the garage and to keep the girls up; we did not tell her why.  When we got home we wrapped John Mac in his special quilt from the agency and Daniel got the cameras.  Of course the video camera had no battery, so we only had the regular camera.  Daniel went in first and had the girls sit on the couch, I then walked in with the baby, I sat down on the couch and pulled the blanket down so they could see what I had.  You should have seen their faces, it was priceless.  The babysitter could not believe what was happening, she was speechless and crying.  She of course had to keep quite as well.  Our first night home went really well.  I don’t think any of us slept real well with all the adrenaline running through our veins.

The Final Part will be posted tomorrow.  Here are some pictures from our surprise at the agency and when the girls first saw him.