Like anything you really, really want, it happened when we least expected it. On August 25th at 2:03 pm, I was in a meeting in Dallas and my cell phone rang with a Nashville number I didn't recognize. I decided to excuse myself to answer "just in case Ryan's in the hospital or something" I thought to myself. I walked into the lobby at our vendor's call center and answered the phone. On the other line was the adoption attorney in Nashville. We met with her almost 2 years ago when our journey began. Really just for advice..but she did take a few of our profiles and let us know that every once in awhile she gets a situation where birthparents contact her.
The attorney asked about our current situation, are we still waiting to adopt, etc. Honestly, I thought maybe she was trying to drum up some business or something. Then she said "Do you mind if I run a situation by you". She started telling me about a baby, a little girl that was born that morning in Nashville. She was 8 lbs, 1 oz, 22 inches long and healthy. The hospital called the attorney...she took down some profiles, ours was one of them. The birthmother and birthfather separately reviewed the profiles. They came back together to discover they both chose us. I have no idea what I said next, I was definitely in shock. It was at that point the sweet receptionist in the lobby took my hand and led me into a private office...
My ability to function in the business meeting was shot. I still had 24 hours before I got back to Nashville. I talked to Ryan and our families. I talked my parents into waiting a couple days before getting on a plane (they were in Bozeman). The attorney firmed up our adoption plan. We would meet our daughter on Thursday. I got home Wednesday night. The only time I'd been happier to see Ryan was our wedding day.
Thursday morning Ryan and I went to work. Crazy, yeah maybe..but we both needed a few hours to transition our work loads. We were pretty sure there would be no more working for awhile after we met our daughter.
We got to the hospital. We got wrist bands and a review of policies from the staff. From the moment we walked in the door they treated us like parents - such treatment is not always the case for adoptive parents. I can't say enough about how wonderful the staff treated us.
Then we met her. Our daughter. Words cannot describe that first meeting. People had asked us what her name was going to be before we met her. We had a name picked out but I wasn't ready to commit. Not sure if maybe we'd meet her and decide her name should be something else. We saw her and I knew that was Malenda Sage. She had always been Malenda Sage because that was my daughter. God (the fates, whatever you believe) had just placed the daughter we named over a year ago into our hands.
Our hearts are filled with love for our beautiful daughter. We are forever grateful to her birthparents who made a courageous and amazing decision. They are the true heroes in this story.
Malenda is four weeks old today. She is a good baby - sleeps, eats and poops like a champ. We can't believe how much she has changed. Above is a picture of Malenda when we met her. Here is a picture taken today.
Our story will continue...
