Adoption Update: Answered Prayers—Fast!

Not even sure where I should start. How about we start Thursday morning, July 15, 2010.

6:30am: I wake up in our hotel room at the Salt Lake City Little America, where I’m attending the bi-annual WGU academic conference. My alarm was set for 6:45am, but I decided to try to get to the fitness center a little earlier that day. Bad idea. All the treadmills and the ellipticals were in-use. So I walked around the corner by the hot tub and jump on one of the two exercise bikes and pedal for 30 minutes.

8:00am: Showered and dressed, having woken Brookie up long enough to kiss her goodbye for the day, I headed down to the Little America ballroom for breakfast–a bowl of corn flakes with strawberry yogurt, a little milk, and a blueberry muffin (which I broke up and mixed with more yogurt).

8:15am: I’m done eating, and now reading Atlas Shrugged when Darin Hobbs sits down with his breakfast. I don’t know him very well, so I make a concerted effort to start a conversation.*

*All of this is just to show what a normal day it was turning out to be, until...

8:17am: My phone rings. The caller id tells me it’s Sam Scott, our adoption agent from LDS Family Services. Mid-sentence, I break up the conversation with Darin and tell him I have to take this call. Sam says hello and asks how I’m doing as I walk through the ballroom to the hallway so I can hear him better. By the time I’m in the hall, he’s told me the good news: we had been selected by a birthmother again. Then he asked if I was with Brooke, and I told him she was up in our hotel room because I was attending a work conference in Salt Lake City. He kind of laughed and said we might be in for a couple of exciting days, because the birthmother who had selected us was in labor at Overland Park Regional Medical Center.

And from there, the next 72 hours were a blur. I went straight up to our room as Sam filled me in on some details. Brooke was studying her scriptures when I got there. When she answered the door I mouthed to her that I was on the phone with Sam, and Brookie replied only with that frightened look of excitement in her eyes that I’ve come to expect with new adoption news. We put him on speaker phone and he retold the story to Brooke. We had been chosen by a birthmother, a Tanzanian native, who was currently in labor at the hospital. She didn’t know if she was having a boy or a girl, because she hadn’t wanted to know. He said she wanted us to be there, but Sam needed to go down to the hospital to check on a few more things before we did anything drastic like book two tickets home to Kansas City.

The situation was more complicated than just Brookie and I being 1,100 miles from home at that moment. We had rented a car and driven to Salt Lake, so if we flew back, we would need to incur a drop-fee for leaving the rental at the Salt Lake location—not to mention that we would never have been able to take everything on the plane that we had brought with us in the car. Also, Brookie’s brother Bryce was at a BYU soccer camp that week, and was planning on driving home with us, spending the weekend in Kansas City and flying home to Indiana on Monday. So there was a question about what to do with him. But, we couldn’t make any real decisions until Sam called us back.

We looked at flights, and the best we could find was a flight leaving Salt Lake at 12:25pm and arriving in Kansas City at 4:30pm. And, at $350 a ticket, it would have been very expensive. Add to that the drop fee for the car, and we’d be looking at almost $1000 to get home. Nonetheless, we texted Sam and told him about the flight. A little later, after speaking with the birthmother, he texted back, “Book the flight she wants to place.” We called Sam, and after determining that the baby would probably be born before that flight arrived, we decided to just throw everything in the car and drive straight home.

But we still had to figure out what to do with Bryce. We decided just to pick him up from soccer camp early. We had to make a quick stop at my parents’ house to grab a few things we’d left, assuming that we’d be back Thursday night. We repacked the car, said goodbye to Dad and my brother Marc, and pulled out of the driveway. Brooke called her mom to tell her we were going to get Bryce, and she told us that he was just going to drive with his cousins who were headed out to Baltimore, so they were going to drop him off in Indiana on their way.

So, with everything (and everyone) we needed in the car, we started our long drive home. It wasn’t easy, but taking turns behind the wheel every two hours, and the excitement of what was waiting for us at home, made it possible. While we were driving, we got a text message from Sam telling us that the baby had been born and it was a beautiful, healthy baby girl.

A girl? Okay. For the past eight months we’d just assumed it would be a boy. We had boy stuff in our basement. But it turned out to be a girl, and we couldn’t be happier. So, what would we name her? None of our preselected girl names seemed right. Then, literally out of nowhere, the name Savannah popped into my head and it wouldn’t go away. I told Brooke and she liked it too. Then I wondered if Tanzania was in the African savanna. I called my mom and asked her to find it on a map. Tanzania is south of Kenya and includes part of the savanna. When a name is that inspired, it’s hard to choose anything else.

We made good time. We hit some traffic near Denver and stopped for dinner. Brookie saw a Carter’s outlet when we got off the freeway, so while I bought food, she bought some girl clothes. When we left Denver we were about eight hours away from home. With the help of Mary Poppins and my parents’ portable DVD player when it got really late, we safely pulled into our driveway at 4:00am CDT. We literally fell into bed and woke up four and a half hours later.

Friday morning we showered, dressed, unloaded the rental car (which made it look like the Mazda we rented had vomited in our front room), and ran some quick errands before we went to the hospital. We got to the hospital at about 11:00am and met up with Sam, who introduced us to Imma, the birthmother and one of the most courageous women I know.

Sometimes you meet people that you instantly love and it makes you wonder if you knew each other before coming to Earth. Imma was one of those people. She is kind, gentle, humble, sweet, thoughtful, and funny. When we first met her she had some questions for us so she would know that we would love her daughter and raise her well. She also wanted to be sure that we were willing to have an open adoption, which we were. Everything we’ve read on the subject says that an open adoption is better for everyone involved, and we wouldn’t imagine having it any other way.

The rest of the day was spent at the hospital. We held the baby for a little while as we sat in Imma’s room. In the afternoon her lawyer arrived with the paperwork for her to sign, which she did. We also signed some papers in front of a notary. Imma said she felt at peace after signing, and we couldn’t be happier.

That night we went home at about 9:30pm. Our house was a mess. But, lucky for us, a few of our friends were there waiting for us to help put the crib and some other furniture together. Those same friends had been to our house earlier that afternoon in the sweltering heat mowing our lawn. With all of the great friends we have, both locally and nationally, Savannah will be part of quite a large support group—and they’re all as excited as they can be for the three of us.

Saturday we woke up early because we had to make cookies for Imma (we knew she was joking when she asked, but we thought it would be funny if we actually did make cookies for her), went to the gym, and showered and dressed before heading back to the hospital at about 9:30am or so. All morning I was worrying about the baby’s name. Maybe Savannah wasn’t right? I’ve never named a human being before. But when Brooke told Imma that morning that we were thinking about naming her Savannah Natalie, any hesitation I had at her name was gone. Imma’s face lit up. The day before we had told her that we were thinking of naming her Savannah Kalene. Kalene is a family name on Brookie’s side, and it’s her middle name. But Imma seemed disappointed. She had taken to calling the baby Natalie in the hospital. She seemed very relieved and happy at our decision—which was really Brooke’s decision, since I had no idea she was thinking that until she told Imma.

That day at the hospital was mostly spent waiting. Waiting for the doctor to come and discharge Imma. Waiting for the pediatrician to come and discharge Savannah. And, most of all, waiting for the nurses to ready all of the necessary paperwork. During all this waiting, I was getting anxious. Not because I felt like Imma would change her mind or anything like that, but I was just excited to get Savannah home with us. I could tell that Imma was also growing impatient. She seemed anxious to leave the hospital as soon as possible. They had told us 1:00pm—which apparently doesn’t mean that we could leave at 1:00pm, but actually implies that they’ll start gathering all the paperwork at 1:00pm.

Finally, just after 4:00pm, I went down to the parking lot and grabbed the car seat and Savannah’s take home outfit. Brookie, Imma, and her best friend Liz all dressed her and then we tried getting her into the car seat. The nurse came in and Savannah and her car seat passed inspection. Savannah, all buckled in, sat on Imma’s lap in a wheelchair and we all left Imma’s room.

The long walk down the hall to the elevator, the elevator ride down two floors, and the small stretch to the front doors were excruciatingly silent. All day Friday and all morning Saturday Imma’s room had been full of laughter as we got to know her and she got to know us. But it was obvious now that it wasn’t a time for joking. Imma was about to do possibly the hardest thing she’ll do her entire life.

We got outside and I went out to get the car to pull it up to the curb by the front doors. It was hard to believe that it was really happening. In five minutes we would be driving home (to a friend’s house) with our baby in her car seat behind us. I drove up to where everyone was waiting—Brookie, Savannah, Sam, Imma, Liz, and the nurse. Got out of the car, walked around and opened both passenger side doors. Imma stood up and carried Savannah in her car seat over to where I was and put that precious package into our car. She was crying as she put her face next to Savannah’s and kissed her. Everyone else was crying too. It was one of the most emotional moments I have ever witnessed. Imma had made up her mind to give her child to adoptive parents a few weeks ago. She had signed paperwork for nearly two hours the day before. But, I’m convinced that it wasn’t until that act of placing her child into our car that she truly made her choice. And it was obvious from the sadness that showed on her face that her choice was based on pure love for her baby.

Brooke was crying and she hugged Imma. I was crying and I hugged Imma, thanking her and telling her how much we loved her. Brooke hugged Imma again and told her to call us anytime. Imma said, in her East-African accent, “Okay. I’ll call in 15 minutes.” Next thing I knew Brooke, Savannah, and I we pulling out of the Overland Park Regional Medical Center parking lot. Brookie and I were still crying, as we did for the next 15 minutes while we drove to our friend’s house, which would be our Kansas getaway until some paperwork cleared.

When we got to our friend’s house, we did the only thing we could do: knelt in tearful prayer, grateful for the blessing that we had received. Only two weeks after joining our friends and family in fasting and prayer, those prayers have been answered. What a testimony of the power of united prayer. I hope everyone who fasted with us this month; everyone who fasted for our miracle in O’Neill; everyone who fasted for us last August will take the time to record in their journals the results of the fasting and prayer offered by righteous Saints, united in purpose—of one heart and one mind.

We are so grateful for such supportive and faithful friends and family. We are so thankful to have been given our beautiful daughter Savannah. We have truly been blessed by the Lord throughout our entire adoption journey. And, more blessing are coming, I’m sure.



Go to the board!