Friday, January 14, 2011

Trip to Florida

We had been looking forward to our trip to Florida for several months now and it was finally upon us! We spent the night at our friends house who lives by the airport just in case the roads got bad. We sure didn't want to miss our flight for this trip! We left for the airport about 2 hours before the flight was scheduled to leave. As we were driving to the airport, we received a call from the attorney in Florida saying that our BM's 1 year-old baby was sick all night and they were at the emergency room. Then she asked if we still wanted to come. I immediately got that sick feeling in my stomach! I told her we would still be there. We thought worst case scenario, we could at least meet her the next morning if we weren't able to do dinner that night. We just said we would call them when we arrived to FL and see what the update was at that time. Our flight left only 20 minutes behind schedule - we were finally going to meet the BM! About 30 minutes into our flight all the passengers on the plane began to smell smoke. It began to worry us all as you can imagine. Within 2 minutes the pilot was on the intercom letting us know that we would be heading back to Kansas City to see what the problem was, but to remain calm! Remain calm - are you kidding me?! For the 30 minutes it took us to return back to KCI the entire plane was silent (except for the ladies behind us that were saying that if it was their time to go, they were okay with it!!) We landed safely and as we pulled up to the terminal there were tons of firemen, policemen and ambulance waiting for our arrival. That was a little concerning but we got off the plane safely. Come to find out, the fan that circulates the air in the cockpit had malfunctioned which caused the smoke smell. Southwest did an excellent job of getting us on a new plane and we were on our way to Florida within an hour of being returned. Our nerves were shot by this time. We called the social worker to see how the BM and her daughter were doing. Everything seemed to be going fine so we planned to have the scheduled dinner just an hour later than expected.

We arrived to the restaurant a few minutes late expecting everyone to be waiting on us. We walked in and the social worker immediately recognized us and welcomed us with a big hug. The BM & BF were running a little behind and were not there yet. As they walked through the door you could tell we were all quite nervous. The social worker introduced us all and we sat down for our dinner. As odd as it may sound, the entire night felt so natural. We absolutely loved the BM & BF and their daughter. Conversation was very good, they asked us lots of questions as did we. They both had a great sense of humor and were very laid back. Dinner winded up being 2 1/2 hours long as we were caught up in conversation the entire time. I don't think I even ate my food! We shared pictures with them of our family & friends and let them know about our day-to-day lives. It was surprising to find out how much they already knew about us just from reading our profile book. They even remembered Ramsey's name! As we left dinner that night, we took pictures together. The BM mentioned to us that if we are able to make it in time, she would like for us to be in the delivery room with her. We were so excited about this possibility! Getting to sleep that night was actually pretty easy as we were worn out from the days events.

On Wednesday we met the social worker and the BM at the 4D sonogram facility. It was a very exciting moment when we learned the baby was a BOY!!! Seeing the pictures of him, his face, hands, feet and his heart beating was just amazing. We couldn't believe how clear the pictures were of how he looks. The lady doing the sonogram mentioned that it looked like he has lots of hair. The BM agreed because she has had a lot of heartburn with this pregnancy!!

After the sonogram was over, we headed to lunch. The lunch conversation was just as good as the night before. Everything just felt so natural. The BM had lots more questions for us that we were happy to answer. Getting to know the BM & BF was such a wonderful experience. We will now have the opportunity one day in the future to let our little boy know more about his birthparents. The entire trip couldn't have gone any better (except for getting there!). We were so grateful to the birthparents for their time and allowing us to get to know them.

It was time to say our goodbye's and head back home. The BM thought that we would be seeing her before March 14th as she thinks the baby will come much sooner. So, we headed back to the airport with our sonogram pictures in hand. Luckily our flight home went much smoother than the flight going there.

It was a world wind of 2 days. It was such an emotional experience it is going to take us a while to calm down from the trip. In the meantime, I plan to start buying some baby boy clothes and such! Only 8 weeks or less until baby boy arrives!!

3 comments:

  1. I am so stinking excited for you guys! You deserve this so much! A precious little boy! Congratulations guys! I can't wait to hear all about the end to this journey!

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  2. This brought tears to my eyes. So happy for you!

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  3. Thank you both! It is so hard to put into words our experience and how excited we truly are.

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