Our Adoption Hospital Experience

Before we matched, I spent hours reading about other adoptive family’s journeys. I found everyone I could to read about their situation, because I had no idea what to expect. Even after learning as much as I could, I was still not prepared for anything! I guess that’s how it goes in adoption and life in general. Our story was nothing like anything I read…

First…our false alarm

I got the most exciting call ever while shopping for Christmas decorations at Target. Our social worker was calling to let us know mom was heading to the hospital. I left my full cart right there in the Christmas section! I called my husband on the way to the car and knew we had get ready to go! We decided to start driving the next morning so made arrangements that night for our pets and house. My friend brought her car seat over and installed it for us (we hadn’t bought one yet!), so we were ready to go. I didn’t sleep much that night and kept getting up to clean things around the house like a crazy person. We got up the next morning and started our 8 hour drive. On the way there, we used Hotel Tonight to find a place to stay. We actually used this app for all of our hotel stays and it was great for last minute booking. The prices are good and it so easy to use on the road. Our social was going to let us know when she heard more, so we drove on. I am pretty sure I just stared at my phone the entire way.

Thanksgiving at Waffle House

We checked into the hotel, still hadn’t heard anything, so went to dinner. Woke up the next morning (Thanksgiving) and heard nothing, so had to figure out somewhere to eat. There aren’t many restaurants open on Thanksgiving, so we ended up at Waffle House for our Thanksgiving meal. The entire day my husband and I were both super anxious, but our social worker still hadn’t heard anything. We saw movie later that day to get our mind off of everything. The next day, still no word, so we decided to head back home. We had no idea what was going on, which was frustrating at time. All we could do was go back home and continue to wait.

The real call

Exactly one week after our false alarm call, our social worker called me at work. I’m a teacher and don’t EVER have my phone out in class, but for some reason I did that day. When I saw it was her, I didn’t even think and walked out of the classroom, just leaving my students! She said mom was at the hospital again, and this time she was certain baby would be coming. So we did the same thing as the week before. Made sure someone was taking care of our dogs and our house. We didn’t have to pack again, because we never really unpacked from the week before. Oddly, I was much calmer this time and slept really well, unlike the previous week.

On the road again

We got up again the next morning to hit the road, stopping at the same places as the week before. At this point, I was getting a little tired of gas station hot dogs, but was happy to be on the road again. When we were about an hour away, our social worker called to say the baby was here! She also surprised us by saying it was a girl! The entire match, everyone said it was a boy. This was definitely a surprise, although my husband said he always knew it was a girl. The social worker didn’t have any other information, so we just continued to have faith that mom and baby were both healthy. THAT night, I hardly slept knowing that the next day we would hopefully be meeting our baby girl. We got up the next morning and didn’t know what to do while waiting for the call to let us know what time we could go to the hospital. There was literally nothing in the small town where we stayed, so we ended up wandering around some of the local country stores. We finally heard around lunch time that we could head to the hospital later that afternoon. We hurried back to the hotel to get ready. I wanted to make sure we had everything set for that night before bringing baby back. We packed up our diaper bag and car seat, taking one last picture of our family of two before we left.

at the hospital

Once we got to the hospital, we were told to wait in the car. When our social worker got there, we met her in the front and went into the lobby waiting room. She took our car seat and disappeared around the corner. It all happened super fast and I don’t even remember what she said to us besides just to wait there. We waited and waited, and I was so nervous and anxious. We still didn’t know if the baby was healthy, although we had a pretty good idea she was since she was being discharged. And we had no idea what to expect.

The wait…

About an hour into our wait, the social worker called and said she needed to talk to us. I am pretty sure my heart stopped in that moment, fearing that something had changed in the plan. There were a few hiccups that she explained once she came back down to the waiting room, but then headed back up to the hospital room. We continued to wait, not really knowing what what was to happen. For about two hours more, we continued to wait. {The wait to be matched was really hard. The wait for the baby to come is hard, but this wait at the hospital was the hardest of them all} Then, we saw a nurse pushing a cart with our car seat on it around the corner. We stood up to go and meet our baby girl. We were overwhelmed and in shock. I don’t even think either of us said much at all! It was a little awkward too, since we were in the waiting room of the entire hospital and weren’t allowed to take her out of the car seat. So my husband went to get the car, pulled up, and the nurse watched us put the baby in.

family of three

Then, the social worker got in the car with us so that we could finish all the paperwork. I felt bad for my husband, because he hadn’t even really seen her yet! But we just pushed through to get the paperwork finished and then headed back to the hotel. I am pretty sure my husband drove about 15 MPH all the way back, but we made it safe and sound. Finally, back at the hotel, we went back in as a family of three. Up in the hotel room, we took Baby B out of her car seat and each held her for the first time. It was a crazy experience that I was not prepared for, but I wouldn’t have changed anything about it. My husband and I are both beyond grateful for Baby B’s birth mother and the selfless choice she made for her daughter.