We arrived in Jacksonville, Florida by 12:30 the following day. It was such a long flight. I called the agency right when we touched down and they said Dee had given birth to a baby girl at 11:20 a.m. The baby weighed 6lbs 9oz and was perfectly healthy!
I was glad that I had decided to “pretty up” in the airport bathroom during our layover because I wanted to make a good first impression with Rick and Dee (I've changed the name of the birth mom and dad). Dee and I had developed a relationship over the phone and with email. I care deeply for her and it was important that she like us.
We arrived at Shands Hospital around 1:45 and met Glenda and Melissa from our agency for the first time. They were just as I had imagined. We all stopped at the gift shop to find something for Dee. What do you get for the woman who is about to give you her child? We settled on some carnations and a rose… the only flowers in the shop. Feeling really inadequate, we went up to labor and delivery. Chris and I were so nervous.
When we walked in to the room, Dee, Rick, Ricks mom, and his sister were all in the room, but no baby. I gave Dee a hug. It was really nice to finally meet her. She looked just as she did in her photos. While it was intimidating to be sourounded by her whole family, it went better than expected.
A half an hour later, we went to the nursery to peek at our precious bundle of joy. They wheeled her up to the window so we could get a good look. She was so beautiful! Tiny and perfect, she slept soundly in her bassinet. Chris and I truly felt like proud parents. Adoption was such a long journey, but at that moment it felt so worth it. We ogled over the baby for 10 minutes or so, but then felt it was best to go back to the hospital room. Shortly after, Rick went to get the baby from the nursery. He held her for a minute or two and then handed her to me. I instantly fell in love. I will never forget that first minute of utter happiness as I held her in my arms. It was hard to believe that she soon might be ours.
Florida law states that the birth mom must wait 48 hours before signing the termination of parental rights. I knew it was going to feel long, but I had no idea.
When the baby first came in to the room, Glenda asked what we were going to name her. Chris and I discussed this on the plane, and we had decided that we wouldn’t name her until the 48 hours had passed and she was ours. I felt very strongly about this, because the name we selected was very important to us. The name was Dahlia Jo. I had a dream about two weeks before I found out about Dee and Rick’s little girl. I was walking in a grocery store and I turned around to talk to a little girl. In my dream I said, “Come on Dilly Dally,” and the little girl ran to catch up with me. I awoke the next morning with the name Dahlia in my head. My great grandfather raised Dahlia’s and they are an extraordinary flower. I thought that Chris wouldn’t like the name, so I waited a few weeks to bring it up to him. To my surprise, he loved it. So, I did a little more research on the name and ironically, I found that Dahlia means “gentle and loved” in Swahili, an East African Language. This made me love the name even more.
The agency insisted that we name her right away. We felt so vulnerable naming the sweet little baby with her mom in the room. It was awkward. I also found it strange that Dee, Rick, their families, Dahlia, Chris and I were obviously going to have to spend the next 48 hours in the same room. I asked the agency about this and they said that they hadn’t arrived soon enough to split us up.
The rest of the day went pretty well. I found that Rick and Dee’s family were distant at first, but they seemed to warm up to us. I can imagine that it was strange for them to imagine us taking their little relative home to Washington.
It surprised me when Dee asked me to stay the night in the hospital room. I was able to feed and change Dahlia all night. I didn’t sleep a wink.
At 7 o’clock the next morning, I called Chris and he picked me up to take me to the hotel for a break. I took a nap and a shower and we headed back up to the hotel room. Chris and I had both fallen completely in love with the little baby and we didn’t like being away from the hospital. During day two, Dee had many visitors. They were wonderful, and Chris and I enjoyed getting to know each person. One visitor in particular was so vocal about how proud she was of Dee for choosing adoption. She was actually the woman who helped them consider adoption rather than late term abortion (when she was 20 weeks.)
As the second evening rolled around, she mentioned that she would like to spend some time alone with Dahlia. We agreed, because there wasn’t much else we could do. Besides, Chris and I felt great about the fact that tomorrow, this little angel was going to be ours. We went out to dinner to celebrate at this fabulous Thai restaurant called Basil. Chris and I decided that we felt 90% sure that the next day was going to be one of the best of our lives and we would be the proud parents of a baby girl.
It was hard to sleep that night, but we managed. Sara warned me that it was likely to be the last time we would sleep through the night. How right she would be.
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