For those that don't know the story of how Claire Marie came to us, you may want to get comfy...it's a heckuva story.
Becky and I have wanted a family for years. She comes from a big family, and although mine is not as big, it's equally strong. There was no doubt that we wanted children. For years, we tried to go about it the "normal" way, but when that wasn't panning out like we had hoped, I brought about the idea of adoption. Adoption is everywhere, including my own family as my dad, cousin and uncle were all adopted. Also, I have several friends that were adopted. Adoption, to us, was a natural choice.
Becky and I began the adoption process back in October of 2008. We utilized the services of a local adoption consultant. Our consultants were hard core...there was a quick, methodical method and they knew everything. If you are serious about adoption, they are definitely the right people.
We filled our application, drafted up our "resume" for our perspective birthparents, and began our homestudy process in February. By the end of March, we were selected by a birthmother and her agency for the arrival of a baby in August of 2009.
For months, we prepared ourselves and our home for our new arrival. We waited almost 5 months for the day to arrive. Our communication with the birthmother and the adoption agency had us coming down to St. Petersburg, FL in late July. The day arrived for us to leave and we drove the 9 hours to pick her up. The day the baby was set to be born, we decided to "relax" and go sightseeing since we weren't legally allowed to see her for 48 hours. Around lunchtime we were getting curious about whether the baby was born, how big was she, etc. We called our agency representative and inquired if she had heard anything. She had not. As the day progressed, we did begin to wonder what was going on. Becky's mother and I went for one last "sightseeing" venture to see the famed Sunshine Skyway bridge. As we reached the summit of the bridge, I got a phone call.
The agency made contact with the birthmother. The birthmother sent a text to our agent indicating she was "going through some things". This is a very common occurance amongst birthmothers and we had emotionally prepared ourselves for the possibility that this would happen. I do not want to go into too much detail here for a variety of reasons, but long story short, the birthmother was not going to be placing her child for adoption.
To say we were devastated would be the understatment of the year. My friend who had gone through something similar said he cried so much, snot bubbles were coming out of his nose. I now understood this pain. My parents, Becky's mom, and we all cried. But it wasn't going to happen. So the next day we began the 9-hour journey back home with an empty carseat. It was the worst car ride I have ever taken in my entire life. If I had the option to use a "blink-and-be-home" pass just once in my life, it would have been then.
We did some soul searching once we got home. First off, our family and friends support for us was just unreal. The outpouring of support and prayer was something you only read about. Because of this, we wanted to remain strong. We made a clear point not to abandon our faith in God, though clearly our faith in strangers was shaken for obvious reasons. We prayed a lot, we went to church, we opened ourselves up, just so we could move on.
Two days later, we made an appointment with our adoption consultant just to have a "debriefing" session so-to-speak. They wanted to know our goals, how upset were we, but also how serious we were. When we said at the end that we were not giving up and we're moving on, the consultant's exact words were "Good, that's what we want to hear because we have another baby for you, she's due Friday (in two days), and she's back in St. Pete"
I think "Holy $^#%" were my exact words. Stunned was probably a more real reaction. We didn't know anything about this girl. We didn't know if we could do it financially. There were just so many "what ifs". But when we were told that we didn't have to go down to St. Pete until this baby was delivered to the state and that we wouldn't face the financial obligations unless it was formal, there was absolutely no reason to fear this situation.
So we had to keep this situation secret except to our immediate family for several days. It was tough, but obviously we didn't want to jinx it and have to explain what's going on to everyone yet again. Finally, Sunday, I got the call at church actually. It was our agency in Florida: "Jeff, we're a go". I immediately started crying, but had to compose myself to let Becky know that we are officially going to be parents. I got to tell Becky at church, in front of the blessed sacrament, which to me was so appropriate because God alone is the only entity that could have made this happen and he was right there in our midst.
We left church (after mass ended of course) and raced home to begin packing. We were going that day! We had our family over to help pack us up and we jumped in the car at 1pm. Come hell or high water, I was making it to St. Pete that night. So we went from the worst 9 hour car ride 5 days earlier to the happiest one that day. We made it down there and spent the night in a hotel. For tomorrow we were picking up our little girl, Miss Claire Marie. And this is where her story starts.
trician setup so far.
