Thursday morning (May 22nd) I was in the bathroom getting ready for work, when I got a call from our SW. We were in the middle of a potential situation, so I was a little disappointed when SW told me that the e-mom had released all of the profiles so she could think a little more...but it turned out to be SUCH a good thing! There was a little girl in the nursery who was born April first and her mom (T) was finally able to make a decision about placement. Her dad (E) had signed TPR the day before, and T was supposed to, but had missed her appointment. T wasn't interested in looking at a bunch of profiles, she just wanted the longest waiting, heterosexual, married couple in the AA/BR program, which happened to be us!
Our SW told us to keep going about our daily lives and not to change any plans or buy anything...so we didn't. We had been planning a camping trip with our friends (we were planning to go out a couple of days early) so we both took a half day on Thursday, packed up my car and headed out to the campground. I had my cell phone attached to me at all times, and I was able to check my email, so I was in full contact with SW at all times! She had emailed me in the evening on Thursday and told me that T had an appointment for 12:30 on Friday and she would be calling us as soon as T showed up so we could pack our stuff and get on the road.
After Noon on Friday, I was beside myself. It was so hard to concentrate on anything, we were stuck in the tent in the pouring rain and we were curled up in the sleeping bag for warmth, reading. I looked at my cell phone at 12:23 and asked Jeremy if he thought we should start getting things ready to go, and he said that we should wait for the call instead of getting stuff ready and having to get it all out again if the call didn't come. About 10 minutes later, my phone rang with the special ring and our SW told us to get our stuff packed and get on the road. T was at the agency and she was meeting with the birthparent counselor.
You have never seen two people pack up a tent so fast. We had the stuff out of the tent and the tent down and in the car in less than a half hour, and we were on the road. We made a quick trip through the Wendy's drive-thru for lunch and we raced home as fast as we could. I believe I used some 4 letter words when we hit traffic, but we made it home in record time, got out of our wet and muddy clothes and jumped in Jeremy's car with the diaper bag. We had put the car seat in Jeremy's car "just in case" before we left on Thursday, so we just had to jump in and go.
We got to the agency in record time and met our SW in the lobby. She asked if we wanted to meet our daughter first or sign the paperwork first. We both decided to meet our daughter first. Who are we kidding?! So we met her briefly, and then she left so they could do the release forms. We signed paperwork for a while, and then the nurse left to go bring her back. We changed her, took a couple of pictures and then we got her bundled in her carseat and we took off! It was utterly amazing. Fast and furious, but amazing.