The Meeting

I took the day off of work I was so nervous. The match meeting wasn't until 4:30pm. In the morning I cleaned the house. Snapped a few pictures of our home. Ordered prints online. Showered and headed to town by noon after trying on an endless array of outfits until I found the perfect one. My hands were shaking as I tried to put mascara on.

It was March 22nd and it was snowing heavy, wet, hard-to-drive-in snow. I didn't want to get stuck at home in this spring snowstorm. That is why I headed to town early. I picked up the photos I had developed and added them to the small album we started the night before. I ran a couple errands and it was only 3pm so I went to see Dave at his work place. He was fine until he saw me... then he started getting nervous too. The last hour and a half, before we'd meet T. for the first time, slowly ticked by and then it was here... time to meet our social worker at her office and soon the expectant mother who wanted to meet us would walk into the room.

She was just as nervous as we were. We shared photos of our life and she shared photos of hers. We talked about everything including the baby that would arrive this summer. The sleet kept falling as our match meeting continued. Inside it felt like we were watching a movie scene play out in someone else's life. Was this really happening to us? Were we going to be parents soon? So many years of disappointment and waiting. Endless waiting. Could things really be different this time?

"Will you be the parents of my baby?" 

Through tears... "YES!" 

Dave hugged T. so tightly that we all started laughing out loud. Tears, joy, laughter and our open adoption relationship began . . .