Steph's Adoption Story Continued... Part 4

Part 4:

At this point, we had to move quickly. Because I didn’t write anything down (who had the time???), most of this will be from memory which is somewhat vague. We ended up driving to meet her a couple of nights later (Wednesday night I believe). I think we went to Claim Jumper – picked up Bonnie, then picked up Jamie. She was VERY pregnant and very sweet. She has a fun personality and we got to know her a bit better. We had a few questions other than typical get to know you questions: 1. Did she drink or do drugs during the pregnancy 2. Who and where is the father? 3. With no prenatal care how does she know everything is fine…and why didn’t she get any care? We discussed other things too – things not written in here … our major question was: Are you absolutely positive about placing this baby for adoption? Robert and I felt like we could not ask our kids to go through again what we all went through with Daniele – we had to know that Jamie was sure. Bonnie had explained to her our situation and she was aware of how hard Dani’s case was for all of us. Of course, she said she was sure of her decision and said that this is our baby. I felt total peace that she would NOT back out. I can’t explain it but we both knew. Well I guess I can explain it – it was obviously the Lord. She also told us she was thankful the other families backed out! Her other answers: there were no drugs, the father was unknown, she didn’t have medical insurance but that she is really great at being pregnant – she has strong healthy babies and she kept saying this one would be as strong as a rock. How true that has turned out to be!!! She told us that she always wanted to do this for someone who couldn’t have children. She was excited to give us this baby. I think after Steph was born, this proved to be harder than she thought but she struggled through with her decision to put sweet Steph in our home under our care.

Other things - Jamie is 5 foot 9 about 125 pounds, blond hair, blue eyes, big hands (bigger than Roberts!) and very athletic…might explain Steph a bit. She did barrel racing growing up (on horses), played softball and other sports and has since told me that she was a VERY active child…that her mother always says it was hard to contain her…well - there we have it! We don’t have any info on the birth father. Maybe he was gentle and quiet and that will show up someday :O)

Jamie had an ultrasound – a big, healthy baby girl…just what Robert prayed for! We didn’t go to the ultrasound – I think Bonnie took her (Bonnie?) I remember Bonnie calling and telling us it was a girl. I can’t remember if this was before we met her – I’m thinking it was the Wednesday (earlier in the day) that we met her …I have searched for her ultrasound pictures (they must have the date on them….)– they are somewhere … I hope … but I can’t find them! I think I had everything in the hutch and then I moved it to a safe place – real safe it is – so safe I can’t find them!

I know I sound scatterbrained but this all happened so fast. Here we are getting ready for a baby within 2 weeks!

Jamie asked us to both be present at the birth and that she would call us when she went into labor. I was going to see her one more time before Steph was born but it didn’t work out - she went into labor on November 8, 2004 – of course at night – isn’t that how it always is? Her hospital was St. Mary’s Hospital in Long Beach…Lovely downtown Long Beach…