My memory is foggy about what happened in the moments after K said those twenty words that changed my life forever.

I do remember thinking, What if I had gotten to the agency even 5 minutes later? I would have driven all that way just to find a locked door.

But I knew that while all the infertility treatment doors had been locked for us, it was time.

God was doing something amazing even though I could hardly think straight at the realization that I had literally just handed in my adoption paperwork and been told we could have a baby girl in two months!

My head came out of the clouds when I remembered I needed to tell Dave what was going on and see what he thought.

So at the first stop light I sent him this text:

do you want to be a daddy in june?

I can remember my mind swirling in every direction imaginable as I drove away from the agency.

Two months? Am I ready to be a mother in two months?

What are you talking about? You’ve been waiting for this for a lifetime. Of course you are ready!

But we have nothing for a baby! Nothing!

You can just get the essentials ready and worry about the rest later.

But TWO MONTHS??? And what about this birth mom? I know nothing about her!

I drove straight to my mom’s work. I walked in to her office in a state of complete amazement and told her the lawyer had said there was a baby we could have in June.

The next day the lawyer contacted me and told me she was on the way to the birth mom’s house to show her our profile. Before this match could be final, the birth mom had to choose us.

I was at work on pins and needles while I waited to hear back from the lawyer whether the birth mom liked us or not.

When the birth moms pick a family for their baby they are generally shown three Family Profiles and they pick the family they want to adopt their baby from those three profiles.

Later, I learned that when the birth mom’s original pick didn’t work out, she was asked if she wanted to reconsider the other profiles she had seen when she was first choosing an adoptive family for her baby.

The birth mom (Tracy) said she did not like any of those families.

And that opened the door for the agency to show her ours!

Tracy was very anxious to choose another family considering she was already 7 months pregnant.

Finally the phone rang and I answered. It was K.

“Well, she liked you all A LOT! Can you come to the office on Monday to meet her?”

I’ve said all along that God was involved in even the most intricate details of this adoption. At that time, I worked as a nanny two days a week for a family with beautiful twin daughters. Monday I was not working so I was able to say without hesitation or the hassle of trying to alter working schedules that we would be there on Monday to meet Tracy!

I also started asking K a TON of questions about the adoption process and about Tracy.

I quickly learned the walk to the finish line to have this little girl placed in our arms was going to be no walk in the park. I will just say it was indeed filled with many “Faith building moments”!

Out of respect for Tracy, I will not be writing specifics about her or her  situation on this blog, except for this one thing!

While talking to K on the phone one day about the situation I said, “Can you describe Tracy physically? If Dave and I have a child that has dark hair and dark eyes that will be fine but it would be nice if the child looked like she could have come from us, you know?”

K replied with a chuckle, “Elaine, this is why I felt from the start you were such a perfect match! She’s petite like you, you have the same hair color and same light complexion!”

So on April 13th, Dave and I went to the lawyer’s office where we met Tracy for the first time. We were all just a bag of nerves.

I was incredibly nervous knowing I was going to meet the woman who may or may not choose to give me the best gift in the whole wide world.

But Tracy walked in and you could tell she was nervous too. We sat together and discussed some things with the lawyer present.

At the end of the meeting, every one decided this was a perfect match.

to be continued…

- Elaine