Our Adoption Story

Chapter 4...ramblings about the whole

It's been awhile since my last chapter. I've been feeling reminiscent, so I thought it might be a good time to share some thoughts on the whole experience.

What happened during the 41 days I spent in Wisconsin is hard to put into words. I keep a lot of the feelings associated with my time there tightly bottled up. I don't know why, maybe beacuse it was such a gamut of emotions, up and down all the time. I had to become a numb neutral being after the first few days. I guess it was how I coped with all the unknown.

It was difficult having Dave leave and come back, but I had lots of other support too. My Dad flew down for a week or so in the beginning. Dave's parents drove down for a weekend, my Mom flew down for a few days. How blessed we were to have such support and love from our families.

I also tried to live in the "now." I (and Dave) would walk to the hosptial, see the babies, feed the babies and love the babies four or five times throughout the day.

Those days were filled with so much. We had attorney's work with and to schedule court dates, social workers to ensure everyone was happy on all sides, legal hoops to jump through, living arrangements to make and change and make and change, and amidst all this babies to love and to feed and to hope they grew fast, but not too fast(more legal hoop stuff.)

most importantly.......
I found some of the most selfless people in the world
1. My birth mom, who gave me not one but two of her precious babies.
2. NICU nurses, who labored to not only help the babies grow but to help us cope and teach us how to care for these precious babies.
3. K, a NICU nurse who opened her home to us so the babies wouldn't have to go into foster care while we waited for a court date. K gave up her own bedroom the day before Christmas for us to come and live with her. She was married, had children, grandchildren, a full and busy life, but she saw our need and took us in. I get so emotional just writing this part down, because I can't ever thank her enough for what she did for us. She provided us with a home while we became parents for the first time. You can't put a price on that and I will always be so grateful for her beautiful heart that she opened up to us.