As Darryl and I sat tight waiting for a phone call from Bethany, Darryl had to go on a business trip to South Carolina. He left on a Monday morning and I was planning on meeting him in Georgia on Thursday to spend time with my brother, sister-in-law, and nephews. We knew the timing would be a few weeks away from the birth mom's due date but since she hadn't quite picked us yet, our agency told us not to change any plans and to continue living our lives. So our Monday went as planned. Darryl left early for his flight to South Carolina and I went to work. That night we said good night to each other on the phone and both of us were wondering how the birth mom's counseling session had gone because we knew it was planned for that day. Darryl said if he hadn't heard from our social worker by Wednesday, he would call to see what was going on.
The next day, (1 year after the death of my Grandpa), I got a phone call at 3:00am. It was Darryl calling me from across the country to tell me that our birth mom's water broke and she went into labor early. A healthy, 6 pound, 10 ounce baby girl was born at 9:16pm on October 24th. Her boyfriend had called Darryl 2 hours after all of this took place but since Darryl was out of state, he was already in bed asleep due to the time difference and didn't get the message until the next morning when he got up for work. As Darryl told me what was going on, I had no idea what to do! I knew I couldn't go to the hospital yet, I knew that our social worker hadn't been contacted yet, and I knew that I had several parent teacher conferences already scheduled for that day! All I could do at that moment was call my mom and dad and sister-in-laws and then text a few people with the good news. At that point, we figured that the birth mom must have picked us since she and her boyfriend wanted us to come down to the hospital! We were overjoyed but so sad that Darryl would not be able to come home until Thursday.
After several phone calls back and forth, Darryl decided to call our social worker and ask her what we should do. She told us that she would not be able to get down to the hospital until later that afternoon but that I was allowed to go down there if I wanted. I felt a little weird going down there without her and wasn't sure what exactly I was allowed and not allowed to do once I did get there. Kiana, (our social worker) said that's fine and to go ahead and get some things settled at work and then to head on down to the hospital. So I went into work that morning, took care of a few parent teacher conferences, and prepared for the day. I explained to my very happy principal what was going on and she said she would call in to HR and get a sub for me. I really thought I would be able to keep my composure and teach for a few hours but before the 8:10 bell, I had a fellow teacher come to my room to tell me something. I ended up breaking down crying and telling her that my daughter was born the night before and that I needed to leave as soon as possible. She was so excited for me and told me that I could leave immediately and that she would help watch my class. However, after getting a few things ready, my sub showed up and I was able to leave knowing that my 28 students would be well taken care of.
I called our birth mom before leaving and asked how she was doing. She said she was doing good but that she and the baby were just waiting for me to get there. I asked her if I could bring my mom along since Darryl wasn't in town. She said that would be wonderful and that she would love to meet her! So I headed over to my Grandma's house, picked up my parents, and we made our way to the Rancho Springs Hospital in Murrieta.
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