We arranged a conference call with the Birth Mother and her agency, which is also her OB/GYN physician. It was probably the most awkward conversation that 3 out of the 4 of us have ever had in our lives. We made some small talk and answered some questions about ourselves. But it turned out that the Birth Mother already knew everything about us - she had really studied our profile. We ended the call around 11:45 with the understanding that she would be discussing things with her husband and that we should expect to hear something within 24 hours to 1 week.
At 3:25PM Kristy's phone rang again. "Congratulations! You have a match!"
We can only imagine that the feelings we were experiencing must be similar to seeing that big + sign on a pregnancy test. The understatement of the year - emotions were a little high yesterday afternoon and evening.
The Birth Mother and Birth Father are both in their early 30s and live in Florida. The baby's due date is November 13, 2011. We don't know the gender of the child, and we don't know whether the Birth Parents do either. Everyone is healthy and there is no significant medical history. Since they are residents of Florida, we will travel there to get the child. All of the specific arrangements still need to be made, so we don't yet know when we will head down and how long we might have to stay. We will need to remain in the state of Florida until both Ohio and Florida process the necessary paperwork and agreements to allow all of us to come home. A safe estimate for that process is 2 - 4 weeks, but who knows when there's bureaucratic paperwork involved.
In any event, it looks like this Christmas will be A LOT different than last year!
One thing that we will all need to keep in the back of our minds is that the Birth Parents cannot sign over custody until after the child is born. And are well within their rights to change their minds up until that time. We will not be dwelling on that though and will be enjoying every minute of this time! It's just a fact that it does happen in some cases, even at the last minute.
So as Kristy said, "This will be the shortest pregnancy in history!" Two months until our worlds are changed forever. Thank you all so much for all of your support thus far. We could not hope to stay sane during all of this without all of the love and support that you, our family and friends, have provided. It truly takes a village to raise a child, and this one will be lucky to have the love of wonderful people like all of you.
More information will follow as we sort out these details. Wish us luck, cause we're definitely going to need it!
love,
Kristy & Matt
