We got THE Call!

Dearest Little One,

You aren't even born yet, but you sure are a thoughtful little bambino. You waited until I was done with all of my school obligations and tied up all of the loose ends before letting your birthmom know that you were ready to come out. You also wanted to make sure that I wasn't going anywhere: you waited so that when you were born, your mommy had the exact number of sick days ready to take the rest of the school year off: there are 17 days of school left, and I have exactly 17 sick days saved up for your arrival. For good measure, you even gave yourself the deadline of Wednesday, May 20th (and just for kicks and giggles, you even allowed me 48 hours notice so I can use tomorrow to get things just so for your homecoming this week).

I haven't met you yet, but already, you're my kind of child. Polite, thoughtful, considerate, and right on time. You, my child, ROCK!

If you were wondering where I was when I got THE phone call, it went something like this:

I was at your Nonni & Poppa's house because I had just sold their oven to help pay for your adoption. In fact, they were letting me sell all of the major appliances in their kitchen to help pay for your adoption. It's not that they're planning on spending the remaining years of their lives using a camp stove to make dinner; it's just that when they moved into their new house they didn't much care for the brand new appliances that the bank had put into their kitchen. So, before they even turned the appliances on, they replaced them with the stuff that was more their style and graciously allowed me to sell the "old" appliances online.

Getting back to the point, I was literally just telling Nonni that I had a gut feeling that you were going to come on Wednesday. Last week, as I was preparing my classroom for a sub, it came to me in a flash: Wednesday. I don't know why that came to me, but it was something that kind of just stuck. Then, to make things more interesting, your Auntie EllenAnn called me this weekend to tell me that she had a gut feeling that you were coming on the 20th. We put two and two together, little one, and this Wednesday is the 20th.

So I was finishing up telling your Nonni this (and I'm pretty sure that while she was patiently nodding as I was telling her this, on the inside she was probably thinking that her daughter was a nutjob), when my phone rang. You got it...it was Adoption Kim.

I answered the phone, not quite sure what to expect, when Adoption Kim told me that we have an induction date for your birth mom to bring you into this world: Wednesday, May 20th.

We talked for a while after that, going over details, but frankly, darling, my head was spinning. Your Nonni's eyes about popped out of her head when she heard me repeat the date over the phone and your Poppa just stared at me, soaking it all in. They graciously let me call your father to tell him the news (I think he was as stunned as I was) before asking for all of the details.

While things can change at any time, the plan (for now) is this:

I'm taking tomorrow off to wrap things up at home and clean for your arrival. We're leaving on Wednesday morning to head up to Modesto, where we're supposed to get a hotel room with your Nonni & Papa. Once we're in the hotel, we're supposed to wait for THE call that you, my son or daughter, has made his/her grand debut in the world. When we get THE call, we're going to be able to drop everything and make the mad dash to the hospital where we'll be able to lay eyes on you for the first time.

As we cross all of our t's and dot all of our i's in these hours before you're born, your birthmom is heavy on my heart. I think about her often, as I'm sure you do now. I wonder what she looks like. I wonder how she's doing. I wonder if she's going to be okay in the events of these next few days. I wonder, little one, and I pray for her, because I know it cannot be easy. I've never been in her shoes, but I know that the gift she's giving us is not an easy gift to give. She's told us (through our respective social workers) that she wants us to be your family because it's better than the family she'd be able to provide for you. That takes a lot of courage to be able to make that difficult decision.

I admire your birthmom so much. Not because she chose us, per se, but because she's putting your needs above her own. I don't know too many people who can do just that. She's a precious woman, your birthmom is. I hope, by now, that you're able to see just how wonderfully selfless she is.

It's all hitting me now, my child. We've been waiting to meet you for so long, and this moment is literally hours away. The next time I post, it'll be filled with pictures and details of your arrival. I cannot wait.

Until then,

your mommy