After several months of not being able to get pregnant, thanks to the PCOS, my husband (JD) and I decided to pursue adoption. So, in 2004, we contacted a local adoption agency and launched into what would seem like an eternity. In reality, we really did have a good experience, but it was certainly a lengthy one.
In my whole life, I have never jumped so high when the phone would ring in our house as I did during the 2 years we waited. That’s the hardest part…wondering when it will all finally happen. We chose to go through a domestic adoption program. I strongly believe there are kiddos of all ages right here in the US who need loving homes…and we need to take care of them.
We were given the choice of adopting a newborn, which is a longer process, or an older child. JD wanted a newborn…he wanted as much of the whole experience as he could have. I just wanted a girl! Regardless, we both would have been happy with baby or toddler, girl or boy…as long as we had our angel.
We certainly hadn’t expected, at least not totally, what happened. Instead of the 6 or so months open adoptive parents have to plan for their new addition, we had exactly 4 days. Noodle (that’s her nickname) was born on the morning of December 22nd and the phone rang at 3:30 that afternoon. It was a Friday. When I heard our social worker’s voice explaining that a baby had been born and her birth mom had decided to place her for adoption, I cried. We would have our baby girl home by the 26th. Merry Christmas to us!
After JD got home from work, we called his parents, then went to visit mine. We sat down, handed over a “Greatest Grandpa” hat to my dad…which puzzled him until my mom asked if I was pregnant. I said no. I told them we’d gotten “the call” and they were ecstatic. Mom asked us how many months we had to plan…I just said “4”, paused, then told her “days”. I can still see her face, pure bewilderment!
The family and our friends spent Christmas Weekend of 2006 buying strollers, crib bedding, diapers, formula, and everything else we could think of. The whole holiday was spent checking text messages, making phone calls to the hospital, and trying to keep my poor old Gramps from going insane waiting on his mother’s name-sake.
So, for all of the stress and pain that goes along with PCOS and the infertility issues that plague many of us living with it, there is silver lining. I’m forever the optimist, because Noodle is my daughter for a reason…she is my little angel.
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