Jadon's adoption story . . .

I wrote this awhile ago but it seems fitting to post it here.

I am telling this story . . . because I love to. As we look to start the journey again this year I find myself reflecting on how our beautiful son came to be ours! On ..Sunday, September 12, 2004 at about 6:15pm at night, Stephen and I were on our way home from a church youth meeting and my cell phone started ringing. I looked at the number and then looked at Stephen as I didn't recognize the number. You see, at that time not knowing the number always meant "it could be the agency". Sure enough, I picked up the phone and it was Sarah from the agency. They told me that a baby was born on Friday and that the birthparents had decided to place and they wanted to show them our profile as they were headed to the hospital at that very moment. We of course told them YES and also found out that the birth family would be looking at 2 other profiles. Sarah told me that she would show our profile and let us know hopefully in a few hours as the baby needed a new home the very next day. So we hung up the phone and waaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiited.

I think both Stephen and I knew in our gut that this was our child . . . I just can't explain it . . . it is a feeling you get inside. Our profile had been shown to 2 other birth mothers and they had not chosen us . . . so what made this different? My husband said he had a peace about it. He must have as during our 2 1/2 hour wait to find out, he left me at home and went and got Long Johns!

Of course I was pacing . . . cleaning the house like crazy (nesting I guess), and trying not to get my hopes up but also wanted myself to be prepared just in case we were the ones chosen. So, of course at 8:45 pm when Stephen was gone getting his Long Johns the phone call came. Sarah said "Is Stephen there?" I knew in my heart what this meant as she had never asked me that before when she had called to say that another family had been chosen. I said "No". She said "I was hoping to tell you together . . . . but congratulations . . . . you are parents of a beautiful little boy that was born on Friday."

I honestly can not even tell you all that went through my mind. All of the emotions that had been bottled up for so long . . . infertility, the adoption process, longing for a child . . . all came flooding out and I was sobbing. She told me we needed to be at Presbyterian Dallas at noon the next day to take home our new son. That was only 16 hours away!!!! She proceeded to give me more details about our new son and we hung up the phone and I waited for Stephen to get home. I knew I wouldn't be able to get the words out so I made a little sign with blue marker that said "You're a daddy".

Thank God for Walmart!! We needed boy clothes and baby items and what else is open on a Sunday night at 9:00pm. After we called all of our family we made our trip to Walmart. It was so strange walking in there and buying baby stuff. It was so much fun though. I think we got about 4 hours of sleep that night as we were what I like to call "in labor". The next morning we got ready and made our treck to the hospital which is only 25 minutes away from our house. We pulled in the parking lot about 15 minutes early and just sat. I then looked at Stephen and said "We need a name!" We had already chosen Jadon as a first name as we loved the meaning. It has 2 meanings that we could find . . . God has heard and Thankful. Obviously it was the most perfect name for our little miracle as God had heard our prayers and we were so thankful.

As we sat in the parking lot we quickly went through middle names as we had not even really talked about it. We finally settled on "Davis". We then made an awkward walk up into the hospital with an empty car seat. It was surreal to us that we would be leaving that hospital a family. When we got to the floor that we were told to go, we met Amy from adoption works. She had us sit in the lobby for a few minutes as they were still tying up some paperwork. It seemed like eternity for her to come back but when she did, she said "Are you ready?". My mind went crazy with excitement . . . and I could not believe this was really happening.

As we walked into the hospital room, I saw our birthmother standing there holding Jadon. It was an awkward silence as we had never met before. We looked at each other and I just said "Thank you for giving us a family!" through tears. She walked over to me and placed Jadon in my arms and said "Thank you for being a family that I know can take good care of him". I gave her a hug and was absolutely blown away by her strength as she handed me our new son. She chose to stay long enough to see us with Jadon and then she left. In a way she felt like an angel who was put on this earth to give us a son . . . and then she was gone. After she walked out of the room, Stephen and I just looked at our new son.

We only got about 5 minutes before they came to take him to the nursery so we could sign the adoption paperwork. As we were led to the family room to sign paperwork I said to Stephen "He could have 3 legs or 12 toes and we don't know because we didn't take him out of his blanket that he was wrapped in . . . Do you care?" Stephen said "Nope . . . he is our son!" We were both so excited that God entrusted him to us that we just wanted to be the best parents to this little boy that we could be. After we were done with the paperwork, we immediately went back to our new son. I was able to change him into a different outfit and we wrapped him in a new blanket and he was just perfect. We put him in our car seat and we were on our way home.

I don't think Stephen ever drove more carefully as we did on the way home from the hospital. We stayed away from all the highways and took the back roads the whole way home. When we arrived home our neighbors, family and close friends had all flooded our house with baby items that we didn't have (clothes, bassinet, toys, bathtub, and swing). We are so blessed to have such supportive and loving families! After everyone left . . . Stephen and I looked at each other and I said "24 hours ago we had no idea we were going to have a son at home". All in all the whole process took 9 months. We started the adoption process in January and he came home in September. As I like to say it "We had a 9 month wait and a 16 hour labor as we waited for him to come home".