The Call

5:30 in the morning, my phone rings. As I pull myself out of my dreams and pick up the phone, I see it’s a “No Caller ID” call. This had better not be another fake credit card call I thought to myself. Wouldn’t it be nice if this was Lifetime I half heartily thought. I’ve received many early am calls due to the time zone difference, and none have been the one I’ve waited for.

“Hi Shaina, this is Diane from Lifetime.” I shot straight up, heart pounding. “Sorry to call so early, I know you are in Hawaii, but….we have a baby for you.” My first thought was, it must be a drop-in-the-lap because last time I received an email first with a phone call much later. “It’s a baby girl and she was born yesterday.” What? That means we are going to have to fly….today!

And that is how my day of absolutely craziness started. A healthy baby girl had been born the previous day and her parents wanted to meet us.

First thing I did was call Gabe. He had been training for 2 weeks at a range on island. His phone went right to voicemail, which was unusual. I called again, this time leaving a message. Then I followed up with a text. I’m in full freak out mode by this time. So I called my Mom and shared the news with her. Finally Gabe called me back and we had a short talk. I honestly don’t remember what was said, but their was no discussion of if we would do this – we both knew this was our chance.

After this, I took a quick shower. After all, I had to look nice when I meet the birthmom. My mind is going a million miles an hour, trying to figure out how to care for all the things that needed to be done before we fly out for an unknown amount of time. I called a friend and texted our church group ladies.

My day was spent on the phone. Responding to texts from the small group we shared our news with. Calls with the agency. So much to learn and keep on top of. Laundry to wash. Dishes to do. I had a ribeye marinating in the fridge. And I couldn’t keep one task separate or prioritize them. I really was in a functioning state of shock.

We have a great small group and the ladies swarmed around me. 2 moms came over to help me pack. They ran to target first, arriving with a mini baby shower. I had told them the baby was a full Hispanic girl. So one brought the most adorable outfit with 2 big bows….bows were nowhere close to being on my mind. They helped me with laundry, went through my large hoard of baby clothes from our previous attempt (and all the ones I’d bought over the years as a way of coping). They did my dishes, and just gave me great mommy advice, and helped me pack all the baby stuff I would need. Their help was invaluable.

Right before they arrived, Gabe got home. He had requested leave which was approved (sooooo thankful for understanding superiors), he just has to be back at work on Tuesday morning. This couldn’t have come at a worse moment in his schedule. He hadn’t been home for over a week, had just worked until 1:30am, and needed to get lots of time sensitive tasks off his list by March 5th so he can attend his Drill Instructor schoolhouse April 4-June 22. But they let him go! Thank you Jesus!

Getting Ready for Pink!

About 4pm, we got a call from the social worker in Nevada. She had just met with the birthparents and told me they are a really sweet couple and seem serious. They did name the baby, and didn’t want to do cradle care (Cradle care is a temporary foster family who takes a baby when they are discharged from the hospital until a private adoptive family gains custody….State of Nevada requires a 72 hour hold before birth parents can relinquish their rights). So the birthparents planned on taking baby girl home with them for the night. When we heard this, our hearts dropped. Here we go again….It was nauseating. The social worker assured us that she grilled the couple and felt they were committed to the process. We took a deep breath and said we are getting on a plane no matter what and would see what would happen. But the social worker did take a picture and texted it to us. We just stared at her face on our phones!

First Photo

We exhausted ourselves quickly, mostly mental tiredness. We had a neighbor who invited us over for dinner and then took us to the airport. I was such a bundle of nerves and thought several times I was going to throw up.

We got to the airport and unloaded our stuff. Holy cow we had a lot. We took our car seat, stroller, and base. Walking through the airport pushing that with no baby got a lot of looks. Lots of, “oh where’s the baby?” as if we left something that important at home. We just smiled and said “We’re picking one up!”

Airport security was interesting. No baby in a stroller, I was half expecting them to pull us aside and have a drug dog check us out. When it was our turn to put our stuff through the scanner, we couldn’t figure out how to get the car seat off the stroller! I knew it wasn’t that hard and had put it together, but that was a year and a half ago! So embarrassing. It seriously took us 5 minutes to figure out how to take the seat off, then how to fold up the stroller. All I could do was laugh…#firsttimeparentproblems.

The flight from Honolulu to Phoenix was only about 5 hours, but it was the longest few hours of my life. No cell phones, so I was so removed from updates. I didn’t know if we would land and get the news that, just kidding they are keeping the baby. The flight was quiet and empty, so we got to actually lay down and get the sleep we needed. Well, I did. Gabe didn’t sleep.

We had a 3 hour layover in Phoenix before heading to Reno. It was stressful, but the select group of people “in the know” texted us. Then, I got a text from the social worker that the birthparents changed their mind and were going to use cradle care. In that moment, I knew this was going to work out. Most of my nerves were gone. A peace fell around me.

Our flight to Reno was the longest hour and a half of my life. Gabe and I weren’t seated next to each other and I just prayed the whole flight. We landed, and split up: I got the rental car, Gabe went for bags. I texted our social worker to let her know we landed. She called and said to get to the hospital ASAP because little miss was going to be discharged in an hour. And the birthparents wanted to see us before that.

We raced to our rental car, madly loaded up, took off shirts and got fresh ones on (it’s been 36 hours since I’d had a shower….i smelled, had greasy hair, and all traces of makeup were gone), and hit the road. I did make up while Gabe drove. We were immediately in culture shock being back in the mainland and the roads, but we made it in one piece. Parked and headed inside to go see our little girl for the first time.