He was born on March 20th. He was 4lbs 10oz.
We adopted Jacob, he was born in Ashville, KY. He spent the first two weeks of life in the NICU there, then was transferred here for another two weeks.
I have gotten a lot of questions about his adoption, as it was rather sudden. So, I thought that I would type out his story for everyone to read!
After 3 very stressful pregnancies, and 3 babies each earlier than the last, Brian and I decided that the best choice would be for me to not get pregnant again. We had talked a lot about adoption, both before and after we had children. Being adopted myself, I have always felt called to adopt. Additionally, we have always wanted to have four children.
Almost a year ago, we started the process of adoption. We didn't tell very many people that we had started the process because we knew that it could be a long process, and we also knew that there would be a lot of questions, including numerous ones asking whether we had a placement yet. Not ready to field frequent inquiries about whether we had a placement, or how long we thought that we would wait, we made the decision to wait until we had been matched with a birthmother before making our decision public. In general, matches are made at the beginning of the third trimester, giving the adoptive parents about 3 months to prepare. Jacob's story is a little different.
Because we have biological children, the odds of a quick placement were against us. Most birth parents are looking for a couple who either has no children, or who cannot have biological children. In fact, some adoption agencies refuse to work with couples who have the ability to have biological children. Because of this, we decided to make ourselves available for immediate placement, or what is called a "baby born" situation. This means that there is a birth mother who has delivered, or is about to, who has not chosen adoptive parents. What this means is that the adoptive parents don't have much time to prepare- they must be able to travel to where the baby is within a day usually. Since this baby would be our fourth, we knew that we were prepared for a baby at any time. There was nothing to buy or anything. As long as the distance wasn't too far, we knew we could travel with little notice, as Brian's job is somewhat flexible. We were told by our adoption agent that this type of adoption is rare, she had only handled two such cases in the past year.
On March 18th, we returned from visiting Brian's family in CA. March 19th I had my sitter come so that I could get unpacked, do laundry, run errands, etc. March 20th I had just finished putting away laundry from our trip when I got a call from our agency. There was a mother in KY who was being induced the next morning. She had planned on adoption, but thought she still had weeks to choose an adoptive family. Would we be interested? After a call to Brian, we said yes, we would. This did not mean for sure that we would be chosen, just that we would be in the running. Just to be prepared, and also to fill the time, I packed a bag for the new baby- we knew it would be a boy. Right about the same time that Brian was driving home from work, I got the call. We had been chosen as the adoptive parents.
No comments:
Post a Comment