The Whirlwind-iest Trip I've Ever Had

We left here Friday morning at 8 and were home by Sunday at around noon.

Between those times, we did a lot of traveling, some eating, a lot of learning, some crying (okay, so that was only me), some nervous pacing and a lot of trying to put details to memory. It took a while to process it all.  It was a surreal, great experience that might mean so much to our future son.

We met our attorney first, it was nice to meet her in person and know where we'll be signing paperwork after baby is born.  She had some frightening potential news to share with us as we were walking out the door, but otherwise it was a good visit.

We then went to an awesome Lebanese restaurant and met our hostess for February.  The woman who is going to let us take over her guest bedroom for our first couple of weeks of parenthood.  She is even more awesome in person and I don't think she realizes how much of a gift she is giving us by letting us use her home while we figure out a baby.  And she has great taste in food.

The next day was devoted to meeting S.  A tour of the hospital was scheduled, as well as lunch at a place of her choosing.  We also had ample time for conversation afterwards as well.  The hospital seemed a little less adoption friendly than we had hoped, but they were friendly enough to us and gave S a lot of attention, which is what you want from a hospital.

I did my best to commit everything I could to memory and spent the entire flight home (almost three hours) writing everything down in my "Dear (Insert name of son)" notebook.  It's important to me that if my son ever has questions that I can answer as many as possible, and I want him to know where he was born, who was born of and what he has in common with his past.

So I told him how she held herself while she was listening during the tour of the hospital, how she wore her makeup, how she dressed.  I described the hospital he'll be born in.  I described the town his mother lives in and the people in her life.

I told him the feelings I had during our visit.  How nervous I was (and how we arrived at the hospital an hour early), how I paced back and forth while we waited.  How Jim had to grab my arm to slow me down when we went to meet her at the front door.  I told him the things that were exciting, the things that scared me, and of course, how I can't wait to come back and see these people and places again, because that means he is on his way!

The highlights of the trip were--

1. Meeting S.  Seeing her in person, looking her in the eyes (and she has beautiful eyes), having open and honest conversations together.  Having Jim open the door for her.
2. Meeting some of S's family.  Shaking hands with some of the biological family of our potential son.
3. S giving us ultrasound pictures.  This is where the crying came in.
4. Hugging S before we left and hearing her confidence in her decision. 
5. Feeling confident ourselves that this is a good situation-- that we have a good connection with her, that adoption is a good decision and that with all of us in that boys corner, he's the luckiest baby being born in February.

We know that our trip was covered in prayer and positive thoughts from our friends and family.  We had no travel problems at all and overall, except thinking we lost the rental car once.  The trip was a success, and though there were some scary things to process, we are so glad we went.