what the deal is (part 2)

This is Part 2 of a multi-part story (not sure how many parts, yet!)...start here to catch up.

It didn't take my parents long to assert that YES, their daughter and her husband would probably most definitely be interested in meeting with him, as they are exceedingly anxious to have a baby and also big fans of divine intervention, which is what this appeared to be (not sure if they said that part, but you know they were thinking it). He gave them his cell number and said that we should call him soon to set up a meeting.

"She will!" my dad promised. "But it just so happens that they will both be here tomorrow night for the wedding-- would you like to talk to them then?" [Ed. note: I mean, isn't it just too perfect that we 'just so happened' to be rolling in to town the next night? I mean, for real??!]

Yes, that would be good, Dr. X agreed. But we wouldn't be able to talk much at the reception-- we would definitely need to set up a meeting for the near future.  But it would be great to get to meet us in person.

This is what my mom told me when she called. She wanted to give me a heads-up, and hadn't been able to SLEEP she was so excited to tell me. She had been counting the minutes until 9am, which was the earliest time she deemed acceptable to call people on a Saturday morning (PS I love my mom). My dad, on the other hand, had wanted to wait to tell us until we got into town to tell us. WHAT?? I am so glad my mom won that 'discussion.'

Naturally, this news thrilled Matt and I to the core. I mean, face it. Basically 5 days ago we decided (and by 'we,' I mean God) to pursue adoption. The next 4 days were overwhelming, because ADOPTION IS OVERWHELMING. We still wanted to do it. But we were buckling down for a long and harrowing journey, full of paperwork and social workers and blood tests and money. And suddenly, out of the blue, someone appears LIKE A FRIGGIN GENIE to offer a seemingly faster, easier, less stressful means to the same end? Someone who didn't even know we existed, but felt led to basically track us down via my parents? Are you KIDDING ME? If anyone out there seriously thinks all of this was coincidental...well, I don't know what to say. There's really no other explanation than God. But anyways.

Surprisingly, Matt and I are 97% excited and only about 3% nervous about the wedding-turned-adoption-meeting that night. We selected our wardrobes with care, knowing that you only get once to make a good first impression. In addition to looking drop-dead gorgeous, we also needed to convey that we would be good parents! Fun parents! Parents who aren't afraid to wear red lipstick to a wedding in December! (OK, maybe that was just me and maybe that has nothing to do with anything, but seriously, that lipstick was hot)

 My parents made the introductions at the reception. Dr. X was taller and younger than I had imagined, and he told us many of the things he'd already told my parents. He explained how he came upon these adoption situations and how things usually played out. He told us that we would need to get an attorney. He told us a few things that we would need to think about and pray about and find out about (from our companies' HR departments and such) before we set up our meeting with him. But mostly he was warm and kind and had the kind of presence that made you feel like everything is gonna be okay. It was a good introductory meeting, in my opinion. We truly enjoyed the rest of the wedding and the weekend, feeling this special "can you BELIEVE what just happened???" buzz all along.


Matt called him Wednesday or Thursday of that next week. We set up a meeting at his hospital for Thursday, December 22. 


On Tuesday night (the 20th), we had just been excitedly sharing our story and our news with Matt's family. We all prayed together, that our meeting would go well and basically that God's will would be done. We then left to head to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, as is our custom on Tuesday nights. While in the car, Matt's phone rings. It's Dr. X.


Are you KIDDING ME?? we thought. We JUST prayed about this and everyone was so excited...and here he is, calling to cancel. UGH!!! Can't ANYTHING in our lives go right??!??!

This is what we thought and said before Matt answered the phone. Like how full of faith and optimism we are?


Hi Matt, it's Dr. X...how y'all doing? Just wanted to make sure we were still on for Thursday...and also, it just so happened that I ran into a friend of mine, Mr. D, today. He goes to my church, actually. He's an attorney, and we got to talking. I was telling him about y'all and he has actually done private adoptions before. I told him about our meeting on Thursday, and he is available and would really like to come. Would that be alright with y'all? You certainly would not be obligated to hire him-- he just felt like it might be helpful if y'all had any legal questions or anything...unless you already have an attorney in mind that you'd like to work with, of course. What do you think?


Ummm...let's see, what do we think? What I think is that trying to find an attorney to hire sounds like the scariest, hardest thing ever. I don't know any attorneys in that town. I certainly don't know any who are experienced in private adoptions. And I wouldn't know how to even start looking for one. Google? So what you're saying is, you just "ran in" to someone who totally fits the bill, someone whom you know personally, someone who feels excited about our situation, who just so happens to be available to come to a meeting 3 days before Christmas for NO MONEY and NO PROMISE OF FUTURE MONEY? 


Well, I suppose it would be alright if he came along. Just for kicks, or course.


We tried to contain our excitement and act cool and mature. I'm pretty sure we failed.


Are you KIDDING ME?? I mean, SERIOUSLY?? After three years of infertility and fighting nature and money and insurance companies and ourselves tooth and NAIL every step of the way, now THIS? Seriously some dude is going to 'discover' us and offer to help us and then all these other dudes are going to just come along and do the same? With absolutely NO effort on our behalf at ALL? In the space of TWO WEEKS? For FREE?


Pretty sure you could have knocked me over with a feather.


I'm pretty sure it's my friend Stephanie that says this (if not, it sounds like something she would say), but it was starting to feel like God was really just showing off.


To be continued...