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Jewish World Review July 13, 2012/ 23 Tamuz, 5772 The stork has landed By Lori Borgman
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
They've had the nursery set up for two years. The white crib with the soft green blanket hanging over the side stands by the window. Wooden cutouts of smiling farm animals, a pig, a sheep, and a cow hang on the wall. A needlepoint pillow that her mother made sits in the rocking chair.
The layette is complete. Green and yellow sleepers, booties and little hats have been tucked in the dresser drawers. They are prepared for either a boy or girl.
Several expectant mothers have looked at their "book" as they say in the adoption world. The "book" is where you tell about yourself, your life, your views, what you might offer a child in the way of family. You include spontaneous pictures of yourselves doing everyday things. Spontaneous pictures carefully posed. It's an uncomfortable way to convey information. It feels like marketing.
Every weekend they go shopping and buy one new thing for the baby they don't have. A car seat, a rattle, a stroller, a stuffed animal, more diapers.
A year passes and they change adoption agencies. Several months later they have a match. A birth mother wants them to have her baby. They count down the months, positing innumerable scenarios for an on-time delivery, early delivery and late delivery.
The due date comes and the birth mother delivers a healthy full-term baby. And then the birth mother changes her mind.
They are devastated. They grieve and mourn for the baby they were ready to love. Sadness rolls like waves.
They resume a facsimile of a routine when one morning the phone rings. There is a baby. The mother has already delivered and she wants them.
Sorrow kisses you on one cheek and joy on the other.
Within hours, they are in the car with all the requisite baby paraphernalia. They tell the hotel clerk they don't know how many nights they'll be staying because they are in town to adopt a baby and don't know when the baby will be released.
When they return to their hotel room that night, just the two of them, a new baby blanket sits on their bed. It is from the hotel manager and the desk clerk.
The baby is released the next day and they ponder the drive home. They aren't about to take the interstate, where crazy people fly by at 85 mph perfectly oblivious to the fact that there is a precious three-day old baby snuggled in a car seat in the backseat of the car. They worry about the baby. They worry about the heat. They worry about whether the car will break down. It never has, but you never know.
They decide it will be safer and easier to pull off on small roads should a need arise, so they take state highways and winding back roads all the way home.
At long last, the crib has an occupant, the farm animals on the wall have someone to watch, the rocking chair has reason to rock and a new mother and father have hearts about to burst.
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JWR contributor Lori Borgman is the author of , most recently, "Catching Christmas" (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) and I Was a Better Mother Before I Had Kids To comment, please click here. To visit her website click here.
© 2012, Lori Borgman
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Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||||
