“Most children develop an obsession at some point. They have a favorite animal or sport. My daughter Kaeleigh explores twin births, outdoor births, water births, and midwives on YouTube.”
‘I showed my daughter a birth video to prepare for the arrival of her little brother. ‘Mommy, can we watch another one?’ She now requests birth videos almost daily.’
‘Nervously, we asked what was happening. ‘Are you sitting down? The birth mother is having twins.’ Our tears of joy were replaced with complete shock.’
“I instantly begin crying. ‘Can someone please get the other dad?!’ A nurse says, ‘Sure, where is he?’ ‘Waiting in the delivery room.’ Nick rushed into the recovery unit with the most happy, surprised, and confused look. ‘They are BOTH here?'”
‘I was ‘late,’ but strange things happened. I told Danny I was going to take a pregnancy test. ‘That CANNOT be 2 lines. What is going on?!’ Neither of us could believe our eyes.’
“It’s 3 a.m. and I am yelling from the bathroom: ‘Danny! Wake up! I just listened to a message and she’s in labor! We missed ALL of the calls!’ We were panicked and had a 3 hour drive ahead. ‘How close are you? I don’t know if she can wait much longer!'”
‘She’s going to be amazing.’ Her birth mom asked for nothing, even though I would have given her ANYTHING. As much as Finley was a perfect fit for our family, so was Lex.’
“It felt unnatural. Sitting across from her, passing her the pen, I was scared to make eye-contact for fear I’d feel too much guilt. The tears streamed down our faces. She was willingly giving us the precious life she created, and we were promising her to cherish it.”
‘It was just her and I. We laid in her bed, holding this sweet boy, talking about the future. As 48 hours passed, it came time for us to leave the hospital. We all walked out together, one family.’
“She asked pressing questions about parts of parenting we hadn’t even considered. ‘Do you plan to say at home? What will you do if your child doesn’t believe in what you believe? What type of school system do you want your children to attend?’”
‘I’m so happy, but honestly a little confused. I really thought we were going to have twins… Exactly one month later, we were contacted by our second attorney. I just knew someone was missing.’
“I knew I couldn’t sit around and wait any longer. The feeling was urgent. Our baby needed us now and no one was going to fight harder for that baby to join our family than me.”
‘Holy crap. Am I exposing a family secret? Who even knows I given up for adoption all those years ago? I am looking at my biological family tree. There are pictures. And names.’
“I went from knowing next to nothing, to staring obsessively at these names. At first it was fascinating. Like I uncovered a huge mystery. But then, other thoughts started to creep into my head. What if I’m just a horrible mistake two people made and then forgot about?”
‘Who should wear the mommy bracelet?,’ the nurse asked our birth mom. ‘Jessica. She’s her mommy.’ She placed the bracelet around my wrist, and handed me my daughter.’
“I wanted to be able to tell my daughter that she threw her head back when she laughed. How she dipped her fries in mayonnaise, but mostly how much she loved her. How she begged me to make sure my daughter always knew.”
‘I got on the bus. A pregnant woman was struggling with trash bags and 2 toddlers. After talking with me for 20 hours, she was open to me adopting her child. I was over the moon!’
“I was told, ‘Come get her. I don’t want her. I can’t afford her,’ but she always ended up taking her back. Years went by I didn’t see or hear from them. Then, I got a phone call.”
‘I received a message from an expectant mom. She was someone from my past. Someone from my childhood. Someone who for years had silently followed our journey.’
“She was due just three weeks later and asked us if we would adopt her baby. I knew although the connection seemed way too close to home, there was a reason this relationship was created all those years ago. There was a reason this connection resurfaced.”
