The day “the” call came was just like any other day. I went to work. I went to the post office to – of all things – buy some adoption stamps. (Do you remember when those were out? If you blinked, you missed them. Fairly soon after they were put into print, postage went up.) I came home, and there was a message on the answering machine. The adoption agency’s director asked us to call him as soon as possible.

My heart was pounding as I dialed the number. I was afraid to even hope, but the director did not contact waiting parents directly for routine matters. Sure enough, he told me that a placing mother had chosen us. She was pregnant with a boy who was due around Christmas time. A BOY! This was in mid-November, so that was REALLY soon. I had to sit down because I was so overwhelmed with emotions. I wanted to jump for joy and scream and cry and about a thousand other things, all at the same time.

The director said there were some challenges that we would have to work through. There were a couple of health issues that we had said we would not consider. Also, the placing mother wanted the baby placed directly into the hopeful adoptive parents’ home straight from the hospital – no foster care arrangements. I had been adamant about not laying eyes on the baby until I knew that he would be my forever child. Somehow, none of these concerns mattered any longer. I had been CHOSEN! I was going to be a MOM! In that moment, I truly did not care about the risks or anything that had bothered me in a theoretical discussion about adopting a baby. In that moment, when a real woman had chosen US to be her baby’s parents, the obstacles just melted away.

My husband did not have the same reaction. He still had the same concerns that he had before we were matched. He would rather wait for a healthy baby than to adopt a sick one. I made it clear that we were adopting THIS baby, and he better just step up to the plate. We agreed that I would research the possible health issues that could result from the prenatal issues. If a pediatrician said that this baby would be healthy, then we would proceed.

By the time we discussed all of this, it was after-hours, so I could not reach a doctor. Webmd.com became my best friend as I researched all of the possible risks. For my son’s privacy, I will not go into detail about what those risks were. I was relieved to learn that any possible health issues would most likely be present at birth. We did not have to worry about any latent health issues popping up later. The next day, I talked to a pediatrician, who confirmed all that I had read on webmd.com. That was enough for my husband to get on board, and we accepted the match.

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