PART 1
The phone call came on a Tuesday morning, right before Thanksgiving.
My husband, Mark, and I were packing the car.
Our kids were running around the house, arguing about which snacks they were allowed to bring.
The dogs were barking.
Suitcases were everywhere.
We were supposed to spend Thanksgiving at the lake.
Then my phone rang.
It was our adoption agency.
“Can you come in today?”
I laughed nervously.
“We’re actually leaving town.”
“We really need you to come in.”
Something about her voice made me stop.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes. Just… please come as soon as you can.”
I hung up and looked at Mark.
He shrugged.
We had been waiting to adopt for months.
We’d always talked about adoption.
We already had children, but we’d both felt that our family wasn’t finished.
Still, I had no idea why the agency suddenly needed us.
As I grabbed my purse, Mark stopped me at the door.
“Did you hear about that baby?”
“What baby?”
He pulled up a news story on his phone.
A newborn boy had been left at a local urgent-care clinic.
His umbilical cord was still attached.
The report said the baby’s mother was homeless and had told staff she couldn’t care for him.
My heart sank.
“That’s horrible.”
Mark looked at the screen again.
“Imagine being born and having nobody there waiting for you.”
I shook my head.
“Do you think that’s the baby we’re being matched with?”
He smiled sadly.
“I doubt it.”
Then I left.
I had no idea that within the hour…
that little boy would become the center of our entire world.
6
When I arrived at the adoption agency, something immediately felt strange.
Everyone was emotional.
One woman had clearly been crying.
Another kept looking toward the door.
I sat down.
“What’s going on?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Finally, someone placed a newspaper in front of me.
The headline was about the newborn baby who had been left at the clinic.
I stared at it.
“Oh my gosh. Mark was just telling me about this.”
The woman across from me took a deep breath.
“There’s something you need to know.”
My stomach tightened.
“You don’t need to sign any more paperwork.”
I looked at her.
“Why?”
She smiled through tears.
“Because the baby is waiting for you.”
I didn’t understand.
Then she said the words that changed our family forever.
“He’s yours.”
I couldn’t speak.
“What?”
“The agency believes you’re the right family for him. He’s at the hospital right now.”
My hands began shaking.
A newborn.
A baby we’d never met.
A child who had entered this world without anyone waiting for him…
was suddenly waiting for us.
I stood up so quickly my chair moved backward.
“Does Mark know?”
“No.”
I couldn’t even call him.
I knew I’d start crying.
So I drove home.
When I walked through the door, Mark looked up.
“What’s wrong?”
I handed him the newspaper.
He stared at it.
“This is the baby I was telling you about.”
I nodded.
Then I finally managed to say:
“He’s ours.”
The entire room went silent.
Our kids stopped moving.
One of them whispered:
“We’re getting a baby?”
I nodded through tears.
“Yes.”
And suddenly…
our Thanksgiving trip didn’t matter anymore.
We had somewhere else to go.
