Adoption: Getting the Call
It’s February 22nd, 2010, around lunchtime and I’ve just finished ordering a fancy ham and cheese at Artisan, a local fancy sandwich making shop. It’s my first time here, but I’m with two of my co-workers, and they’re regulars. I’m a bit confused because there’s no obvious good place to stand and wait for my fancy sandwich. So, I’m standing around trying not to look too terribly uncomfortable.
Wait, was that my phone? Crap! It’s an area code I don’t recognize and Cindy said we could get the call any time now. Call back. No answer!!!! Call Cindy. It is the call, and she conferences me in with our social worker!!! Our social worker congratulates us then tells us the story of how Gavin came to be in the orphanage, where he’s from, and when they think he was born. She’s emailing us photos and mailing a packet of paperwork that we needed to ger back to them ASAFP! I better get back to my desk to see these pictures!
Damn! They take a long time to make a ham and cheese sandwich. All this time I’ve been pacing in and out of Artisan, paying more attention to the phone than the world around me.
Holy shit, I’m a dad! I think this is the moment that it hit me that I was really becoming a dad. I mean, through all the process and the paperwork and the waiting, I knew that someday I would become a dad, but it always seemed there was so much that could potentially go wrong and make the process take longer and longer, that it never really hit me. But, that picture made it real to me.
Now, I just needed to figure out exactly what I thought it meant to be a dad. It obviously wasn’t just the feeding and the plumbing. I’m pretty sure it involves fishing and bicycles at some point. Thankfully, I still have a little time to figure that one out.
After that set in a bit, back to reality. There’s so much to do! I better call my mom, then dad, then my brother and sister. And we better go visit that doctor on Roosevelt that specializes in adoptions to look over whatever medicals they send us in that packet. Ugh, and we need to start pricing out travel. When do we find out what our travel date is? And we need to get a cashiers check for the final adoption fees. And we need a car seat. And who’s going to watch the animals? And…
I have no idea whether the sandwich was any good or not. I’m pretty sure it was cold by the time I ate it.
