“I could literally hear water balloons whizzing over my husband’s head. ‘What?!! Are you crazy? Heck No!’ I expected this. But I couldn’t let it go. I pictured this baby alone, in need of someone to hold him, to help him feel safe. ‘Please honey, just consider it,’ I urged. ‘It’s only for the weekend!’ Around 9 p.m., there was a knock on my door. ‘We’ll take good care of you this weekend, little guy.’ I snuggled him softly.”
‘Please,’ they begged. ‘Would you take in a newborn, just for the weekend?’ I knew my husband would say no.’: Foster mom adopts ‘special little boy,’ is forever grateful for her son ‘who almost wasn’t’
‘I started to panic. I told my friend we were having this child regardless. ‘Would you really?,’ she responded.’: Mom grateful for taking the ‘scenic route’ with son diagnosed with Down syndrome
“I was home alone. I completely broke down after this phone call. A part of me believed he didn’t have it. Maybe a part of me just wished he didn’t have it. ‘Look at him,’ my husband told me. ‘Think of how hard he fought to be here. He is the best thing to ever happen to us, and we have this under control.’ As long as we all had each other, we would live the best life – and I believed him.”
‘My husband called. I knew something was up. ‘She delivered a baby last night.’ I shook. I cried. He wouldn’t be the only brown face in our family.’
“A week later I received an email. I thought, ‘Leave me alone! I have a brand new baby I wasn’t expecting! Just give me a chance!’ When I clicked on the email, it wasn’t them reminding me to do my update. It was their birth mother.”
‘We sound like the beginning of a bad joke. A Black, Transracial, Mennonite Adoptee and a White Mennonite Midwesterner walk into a bar…’
“Eight years ago, I got in a car at midnight to eat bad cheese fries at a sketchy truck stop. I took a chance to be vulnerable with someone I didn’t know. And, it changed my life.”
‘I still remember the text I sent my husband. ‘Do you want TWO babies?’ Boy, girl, black, biracial, a year apart, biologically shared one parent. My voice trailed off.’
“When I saw my son-to-be’s date of birth, I choked back tears. To understand why, I need to rewind. My husband was feeling run down. It was sudden and pronounced fatigue, odd for an avid cyclist. At 32 years old, he was fit. We both shrugged it off. I promised our kids we wouldn’t be gone long.”
‘Momma, can you please call the judge? He’s moving too slow. Does he know I need you to be my momma? I’ll tell him. I need to be adopted. I can’t wait anymore.’ My boys waited 3 long years.’
“We started making visits with his siblings. This one forever changed my life. I felt a little tug on my shirt. He said, ‘Are you Jeremy’s mom?’ I said, ‘Yeah buddy, I am.’ And then his crushing response was, ‘Will you be my mom too?’ I cried. I hugged him. I was speechless.”
‘I was ‘super single’ for years. I nearly gave up on love. Then, Tinder put his face right in front of me.’: Woman ‘finds love’ on dating app after divorce
“The day of our first date arrived. I’m sitting on my balcony, spruced up and ready to go. I told my friend, ‘I’m not going,’ as I felt weird that I hadn’t heard from Tristan in a few days. She told me, ‘Just go. He’s cute and French!’ I called an Uber and went to the restaurant he suggested, nervous as heck.”
