P2's Adoption Story

I've had some requests recently for our younger kids' adoption stories. Here's P2's story, it's a long one, sorry:

After 2 miscarriages (Nov 03 and Mar 04) & too many rounds of fertility drugs, I couldn't ride that hormonal roller coaster any more. After much prayer, we decided to apply to adopt through a small, Christian agency in Dallas. We turned all the paperwork & home study stuff by Jun 05 and waited.

On Mar 11, 2006, we were having P1's birthday party with family. DH's mom asked if I would loan some of my baby equipment to one of their cousins (19 yrs old, hubby in army, no money) who was due early April. I, very begrudgingly, gave away my baby swing, stroller, exersaucer, bouncy seat, etc. Not the absolutely necessary pieces, just all the extras. They smoked, so I told DH's mom I didn't want any of it back. She said, "Well, when you get a baby, it'll probably be our last grandkid, so I'll want to buy you lots of new stuff."

On Mar 12, we (DH, P1 & I) left to go on a mission trip to do some hurricane clean up at a Baptist camp in East Texas with some friends & their parents & a bunch of couples their parents' age.

On Mar 13, the men were all working hard on building repairs & tree clean up. The other mom & I took the boys on a walk thru the camp grounds to pick up all the trash. In the afternoon, we had a small party for P1 since it was his actual birthday. That evening we were in our cabin, playing with some of P1's birthday stuff, winding down for an early bedtime, when our friend's mom knocked on the door. "You've got to call DH's mom immediately. It's an emergency."

We panicked, and DH used her phone to call home. All I could hear was his mom yelling into the phone, "You've got to call Andrea now about a baby!" And that was it - P2 had been born that morning, on P1's 5th birthday - all 5 1/2 pounds of him. Of course, the annoying thing was that everyone knew we had a baby before we did. But, that's really small compared to the greatness of the moment.

After lots of phone calls and very little sleep, we left for the hospital (south of Fort Worth) early the next morning. Because God has a way of making some things almost too easy. P2 was born in the town where my cousin & fam live. We could stay with them until P2 was ready to come home. P1 could stay & play with his cousins rather than sit up at the hospital. And they had an infant car seat and preemie-size boy clothes that we could borrow (their twins are a few months younger than P1).

So like I said, almost too easy. P2's birth mother walked out of the hospital AMA before we arrived and dropped off the radar. Because she tested positive for speed, she was told she had to place the child for adoption or he would go into foster care. She chose adoption. The hospital connected her with our agency. They brought her two family profile books. She chose us because we lived in Texas (the other family lived in OK). She signed a contract with the agency identifying us as her choice of families, but she couldn't sign the papers to relinquish her rights until 48 hours after giving birth. She had an appointment to come do that & didn't show up. She wouldn't answer her phone. The CPS caseworker went to her house & she wouldn't come to the door.

We couldn't take P2 home until those papers were signed. The nurses in the nursery made up reasons to keep him one more day, but he was going to be discharged Thursday no matter what. If she didn't sign the papers, he would go into foster care. We prayed & cried & held on to that baby, knowing he was ours. With 2 hours to go before he was to be discharged, we got a call that the police had been called to the home for a domestic disturbance. CPS was called because there were children in the home. She knew we needed her signature on the paperwork and convinced the police to hold them there at the home until our agency caseworker could get there. Andrea said that was the first time she'd had the relinquishing papers signed on the back of a police car. As soon as they were signed, they called and told us he was ours officially.

The amazing thing was even though P2 was tiny, he never showed any signs of being a drug baby. The nurses said he acted like a preemie but not like a drug baby. He is a very healthy kid.

So that's P2's amazing story - the best birthday present P1 ever got.