Their journey to parenthood has been long and challenging and it's so moving to see them with their new son.
Last summer David came down from the Bay Area to visit me, and we went to a picnic held by the adoption agency with which they were affiliated.
It was wonderful to see all the couples with their adopted children, and to know that so many adoptions were successful. There were also couples who were aspiring to adopt, and had yet to hold a baby in their arms. Those with babies told their adoption stories ... sometimes of several failed attempts, and then final success.
David and Rachel had already experienced one failed adoption. They had been matched with a birth mother in Missouri, had made a trip there to meet her which had been promising. They went back for the birth only to have the birth mother change her mind. What a disappointment!
But I knew the right and perfect baby would appear. And it did. The birth parents...both teenagers...were sent a box of 100 brochures with profiles of the prospective parents-to-be, including David and Rachel’s.
The profile resonated, a meet-up trip was taken to Oxnard, reasonably close this time, and all went well. They came down for the birth last week, stayed with our relatives in the area, and also spent a night with me.
That night was interrupted at 3 a.m. ... they got word that labor had begun and they were off to the hospital, where they had their own room and took care of the baby shortly after birth. With an open adoption, both families have expanded.
There are a number of poems on the Internet about this moment. There's one that I love, "I am so very special" by Karen Heeney at poemhunter.com.
Life is a gift.
And so it is.
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