Anticipation

In just a few short days Jim and I will be on a plane to Detroit, Michigan.  And a day and a half later, we will be on the return flight home.
It will be a whirlwind trip where we will not only meet S (the main reason for the visit), some of her family, our hostess for our visit in February and our attorney as well as touring the maternity ward of the hospital where S will give birth.

The word to best describe how we feel and how we have prepared for our visit is anticipation. 

While I feel what you might expect of someone in our circumstance-- nervous to meet someone new, worried she will not like us after she meets us in person, concerned her family won't like us and change their mind-- I am also just anxious and excited to meet her. 

She is giving us hope.  She has made a decision that would give us the opportunity to become parents and give us the greatest gift we have received.  She has made this decision knowing that it will cause her a great deal of pain.

We have been talking via text and some phone calls about every other day since our initial phone conversation.  We have shared pictures of the nursery as we have been preparing it and she has been so excited to see our progress.  When we named our son together I think we were both crying with how perfect the name turned out and how we all three loved it.  When we talk about our future we always seem to be on the same page.  I look at the picture of her baby bump a few times a day and am so grateful she shared it.

Someday, if all goes well, she will be family of sorts.  So while it's a little scary to meet her and be under the scrutiny of her support system, it will also be like meeting a long lost relative that you plan on keeping in our life from now on. 

We are also excited to meet the wonderful lady who we met through an organization I'm in.  After a phone conversation, she offered to let Jim and I stay in her home after the baby is born in February so we don't have to live for two weeks in a hotel room.  It's amazing and we're excited to meet her so we aren't strangers when we show up on her doorstep with a little bundle.

And meeting our attorney will be nice, as we are very grateful that we've been placed in capable hands who will handle the documents and everything legal that we need to do during a very awkward and confusing time where we would rather be focusing on our little man.

So if you are the praying type, we would appreciate you lifting us all up this weekend.  It may or may not be awkward, but this is just another thing we want to do for S and most importantly, for our future son.