Steph's Adoption Story Continued... Part 5
Part 5:
Robert dropped me off at St. Mary’s Hospital – no offense Bonnie, but what a scary place. As I walk in the door, I look up and there is blood on the wall opposite me – to the left is a man holding his shoulder leaning on the wall – the blood smeared all behind him – he’s moaning – his friends are trying to help him in the room – they are crying and panicking – he has a gun shot wound – I look at Bonnie with big eyes…she runs toward me quickly - grabs me, drags me to the other side of the waiting room and pulls me to the ground. There we are on our knees in the waiting room – everyone looking from us to the gunshot victim not sure what is going on – actually, I’m not knowing what we are doing on the floor either - She tells me that the man has been shot by a gang member and she heard that sometimes the gangs come back to finish him off!!! We started spying out the window looking for the gang…still on our knees – we crawled past the windows and into the hospital!!! Everyone still staring from us to the gunshot victim… That was the start of my experience in that hospital.
We finally got to labor and delivery – Jamie was doing fine. I was flustered and by this point laughing at the experience – I will never forget Bonnie’s face when I walked in that ER…We had Jamie laughing so hard at the story. She was just starting some heaveier contractions - she didn’t want any medicine or pain killers (not sure they would have given her too much anyway as she didn’t have insurance). Robert waited in the waiting room – we didn’t want the nurses to know it was an adoption – there were state social workers that wouldn’t be too friendly to it. The nurses weren’t very nice to Jamie as she didn’t have any prenatal care or health insurance– they questioned her over and over again. The nurses were rude and impatient in behavior and mannerisms! I’m not sure they liked Jamie. Jamie was actually really nice in there and very kind – patient with the nurses and their questions. She kept saying what does the prenatal care do anyway? And then as I thought about it, I had to think she is somewhat right! There is not much they can do anyway. I think they were fearful that she was avoiding being drug tested. The nurses kept indicating that something could be wrong and she should have gone in and Jamie said over and over, “oh brother, she is going to be as strong as an ox!!!!” Bonnie and I stayed in there with her the whole time. She was in some pain (without that epidural…) and it’s always hard to watch someone go through pain for me…
Steph was born at 5:34 a.m. a big and healthy baby girl, 8 lbs. 14 ounces. She looked so huge lying on the scale! She had to stay in the hospital for 2 days due to the lack of prenatal care. There were no drugs in her system at all. I guess that their testing is so good nowadays that they can tell if the mom was on drugs at any time during the 9 months. Stephanie tested completely clean – as did Jamie. It was hard for me to leave Steph in that long. Jamie was sure of her decision, but I feared her bonding too much at that point – especially since she already had three children. I wasn’t fearful of her changing her mind, just fearful of it being that much harder for her emotionally. She did okay with it all. We met her oldest daughter and her boyfriend. We went home and slept.
The following day, I met more of her family – her other daughter and one of her sisters at the hospital. Her son was not around. Bonnie’s husband Clayton came by on his rounds. I’ll never forget Jamie’s reaction to him – it was hilarious! I was not there but she told me all about it when I walked in. She was very taken with him!! I took care of Steph most of the day. Jamie and I had a lot of talks about adoption, her heart, her family, her life – changes she needed to make. I was able to share the gospel with her. She was a little more subdued now that Steph was born – I think it was much harder than she thought it would be. Here I am trying to counsel her through her decision as Steph’s adoptive mom, but it worked because the Lord was in it. I just talked through what I had seen Bonnie do so many times before, praying the whole time. Robert wasn’t around as much to keep the adoption quiet. Patty and Kristine came to visit and brought lots of love and joy for Jamie and Stephanie…and of course, me!
We told the hospital social worker that I was adopting the baby and she was nice about it. I remember driving out of the hospital with Kristine (Ardo) late that night, we got lost and punched in “home” in the GPS to get out of there. My memory is so bad, I don’t remember if Tina came home with me or if we were grabbing food… Tina help?? Patty had been at the hospital –not sure where she went but she left and I had Tina. What were we doing Tina? She must have been coming home with me since the Ardos were coming back the next day. All I know is that I was never so thankful for my GPS in the car. That place was so scary!!!! Kristine and I were laughing so hard and I was thinking, “Maybe that gang is around here and they are going to shoot us!!!” I love my GPS!!!
Robert dropped me off at St. Mary’s Hospital – no offense Bonnie, but what a scary place. As I walk in the door, I look up and there is blood on the wall opposite me – to the left is a man holding his shoulder leaning on the wall – the blood smeared all behind him – he’s moaning – his friends are trying to help him in the room – they are crying and panicking – he has a gun shot wound – I look at Bonnie with big eyes…she runs toward me quickly - grabs me, drags me to the other side of the waiting room and pulls me to the ground. There we are on our knees in the waiting room – everyone looking from us to the gunshot victim not sure what is going on – actually, I’m not knowing what we are doing on the floor either - She tells me that the man has been shot by a gang member and she heard that sometimes the gangs come back to finish him off!!! We started spying out the window looking for the gang…still on our knees – we crawled past the windows and into the hospital!!! Everyone still staring from us to the gunshot victim… That was the start of my experience in that hospital.
We finally got to labor and delivery – Jamie was doing fine. I was flustered and by this point laughing at the experience – I will never forget Bonnie’s face when I walked in that ER…We had Jamie laughing so hard at the story. She was just starting some heaveier contractions - she didn’t want any medicine or pain killers (not sure they would have given her too much anyway as she didn’t have insurance). Robert waited in the waiting room – we didn’t want the nurses to know it was an adoption – there were state social workers that wouldn’t be too friendly to it. The nurses weren’t very nice to Jamie as she didn’t have any prenatal care or health insurance– they questioned her over and over again. The nurses were rude and impatient in behavior and mannerisms! I’m not sure they liked Jamie. Jamie was actually really nice in there and very kind – patient with the nurses and their questions. She kept saying what does the prenatal care do anyway? And then as I thought about it, I had to think she is somewhat right! There is not much they can do anyway. I think they were fearful that she was avoiding being drug tested. The nurses kept indicating that something could be wrong and she should have gone in and Jamie said over and over, “oh brother, she is going to be as strong as an ox!!!!” Bonnie and I stayed in there with her the whole time. She was in some pain (without that epidural…) and it’s always hard to watch someone go through pain for me…
Steph was born at 5:34 a.m. a big and healthy baby girl, 8 lbs. 14 ounces. She looked so huge lying on the scale! She had to stay in the hospital for 2 days due to the lack of prenatal care. There were no drugs in her system at all. I guess that their testing is so good nowadays that they can tell if the mom was on drugs at any time during the 9 months. Stephanie tested completely clean – as did Jamie. It was hard for me to leave Steph in that long. Jamie was sure of her decision, but I feared her bonding too much at that point – especially since she already had three children. I wasn’t fearful of her changing her mind, just fearful of it being that much harder for her emotionally. She did okay with it all. We met her oldest daughter and her boyfriend. We went home and slept.
The following day, I met more of her family – her other daughter and one of her sisters at the hospital. Her son was not around. Bonnie’s husband Clayton came by on his rounds. I’ll never forget Jamie’s reaction to him – it was hilarious! I was not there but she told me all about it when I walked in. She was very taken with him!! I took care of Steph most of the day. Jamie and I had a lot of talks about adoption, her heart, her family, her life – changes she needed to make. I was able to share the gospel with her. She was a little more subdued now that Steph was born – I think it was much harder than she thought it would be. Here I am trying to counsel her through her decision as Steph’s adoptive mom, but it worked because the Lord was in it. I just talked through what I had seen Bonnie do so many times before, praying the whole time. Robert wasn’t around as much to keep the adoption quiet. Patty and Kristine came to visit and brought lots of love and joy for Jamie and Stephanie…and of course, me!
We told the hospital social worker that I was adopting the baby and she was nice about it. I remember driving out of the hospital with Kristine (Ardo) late that night, we got lost and punched in “home” in the GPS to get out of there. My memory is so bad, I don’t remember if Tina came home with me or if we were grabbing food… Tina help?? Patty had been at the hospital –not sure where she went but she left and I had Tina. What were we doing Tina? She must have been coming home with me since the Ardos were coming back the next day. All I know is that I was never so thankful for my GPS in the car. That place was so scary!!!! Kristine and I were laughing so hard and I was thinking, “Maybe that gang is around here and they are going to shoot us!!!” I love my GPS!!!
2 comments:
I love reading this! I remember how excited we were when you called us! I also remember you wanted to name her Gracie Lu. Hahaha! I went home with you because my whole family was going to Bonnie's house the next day.
Yes - She is definitely not graceful!! Maybe she would have lived up to that name...or maybe she would end up like Gracie Lu Freebush on that movie!!! ha ha but you know...her name still is:
Stephanie Grace Lucile Dodson...
so - she still is Gracie Lu!!!!
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