Anna's Story Part I

We have been very quiet in 2011.  We had a very hard year.  We were victims of an adoption scam in January 2011.  It was devastating for us.  We really needed a lot of time to heal.  Luckily, we had Jacob to keep us grounded.  His sweetness was as salve for a difficult time.  And certainly, life continued.  Working full time and going to school part time kept me from blogging.  It is hard to juggle so much!  All of my energies went to family, school, and work.

We had another adoption fall through in November.  We learned to keep our mouths closed, but we still felt the pangs in our hearts.  And then, we were matched again in late November.  Our third time, we kept SO quiet.  We didn't share the news with our families.  It is hard to share the heartbreak.  Without a doubt, our families felt our sadness, but it is such a private mourning, we hated to even get their hopes up.

We were told that the baby was due January 17th.  About a week later, I got a text from E, the birth mom.  She said the due date had been moved up to December 31, 2011.  So we planned for a baby after Christmas.  We figured we would tell our parents after Christmas.  So on December 21, when we got a phone call at 6am, we were very surprised to learn that E was in labor and that Anna was on the way. AUGHHH!  We weren't ready!!!  We quickly packed.  Jacob had a half day at school that day.  We dropped him off and I went into work to try to wrap things up since I would be out for 3 months.  My sister helped us book our hotel.  We booked a flight and rented a car and we were off!  After the longest afternoon I can remember, we were in Atlanta and met Anna 5 hours after she was born.