The Longest Drive

I've debated and debated on whether or not I would post on here about our adoption match that went south, but I've finally decided that I will. Mainly because I know that there are other adoptive families out there that have been through something similar and I hope somehow our story may comfort or help others. In June (the 18th to be exact) we received an email from K saying she would like to get to know us better. Immediately we felt connected to K. We exchanged several emails and decided that we would like to meet. The beginning of July we met K, her mother, and her father. I have to say the meeting them was nerve racking! Almost like a blind date feeling, but all in all it seemed to go well. We continued to email and determined that we still liked each other and eventually (the end of July) K asked if we would like to match with her. We, of course, said YES! We cared, and loved her very much. She seemed like a perfect match for us. She had a great sense of humor, wonderful outlook on life and we had so much in common. We went on vacation the beginning of August and while coming back from vacation stopped off to visit with K and her family at their house. This visit seemed to go so much better, it was much more relaxed and easy going. That Monday (Aug 20th) we received an awesome phone call from IAC letting us know that K wanted to "officially match." We were over the moon!! On Aug 29th we had our match meeting. We were also able to meet J, the expectant father. He decided to sign his rights over that day. By that time there was only a week until K's due date! We were so excited and started getting everything prepared for baby girl. The 6th (Sept) came and went with no little one. On Sept 14th K texted and said she was going in to be induced. Nick and I rushed over to the hospital (about 2 1/2 hours from us). At the time we thought it was the longest car ride ever!

We get to the hospital and K was doing great! In pain, but soon she had an epidural and all was better. K had asked me to be in the delivery room with her. After 3 hours of pushing, baby girl was born at 7:01 pm. Pure sweetness. It's truly amazing how much I already loved that little girl. She was going to be monitored for a couple of hours in the nursery so Nick and I decided to go get something to eat and was going to come back. By the time we ate, though we realized it was late and we should get our Miss K to bed. (She was staying with a friend in a hotel) While at the hospital, the birth family had encouraged us to bring up Miss K the following day. Nick and I had planned on NOT taking her to the hospital, but with their confidence, decided we would.

We had never told K that this baby was her baby sister, instead we always said that it was K's baby, but she was deciding whether or not she wanted baby to be with our family. The following day (Sat) we get to the hospital and Miss K received a "Proud Big Sister" sticker at the front door. We didn't really say anything about it, because again, our feelings were that it's okay for us to get hurt, but not our girl. We get to K's room and hold and feed baby girl. Birth certificate was done with the name that we were going to name her, our last name because "She'll never need my last name." A couple times people mentioned about Miss K being a good big sister. K and I had a nice long talk about adoption and what I took as she was still very confident in her decision to place. That afternoon we decided to go back to the hotel for a bit and was going to go back up later. Our friend Stephanie and I went (they had said she was welcome to come up) up later that evening and spent a couple hours visiting and holding little miss. K was to sign relinquishment papers the next morning. After getting back to the hotel, Nick and I packed our little diaper bag, got the going home outfit all ready to go. Finally, after such a long time waiting, we were going to have our little baby! We went to bed and sometime after 11 pm K's dad called and said that they couldn't go through with it. To say that we were completely blindsided is an understatement. We cried and held each other all night long. I wanted to leave right then, but we knew we should at least let Miss K get her sleep. So we got up early the next morning and drove home. Now THAT was the longest drive ever.