January 17, 2018. The day that changed my world for the better. The day that I finally became a mama.
I’m sure you have all heard of crazy adoption stories but truthfully, we never expected one. Usually, people pursuing adoption get matched and have a few months or weeks to prepare for their baby. I assumed this would be how our adoption worked. In fact, my agency said they rarely have “stork drops” and almost every adoption they do is well known in advance. I should have known right then and there that our story would be different.
I got the call at 1:33 pm on Wednesday, January 17th. A baby boy had been born that morning and the birth mom knew she couldn’t keep him given her current circumstances. The hospital contacted our agency and asked if they had anyone that could take this baby. The agency immediately contacted me and my heart dropped the minute I saw a Florida number calling. I was at work and walked away from my desk, hands shaking and heart beating 100 miles a minute. I assumed she was about to tell me we had been chosen. Instead, she said that there is a baby boy waiting on us and asked how soon we could get to Florida. I hung up the phone to call Craw and he said he couldn’t even understand what I was saying I was freaking out and crying so hard. All I could get out is that we have a son and we have to get to Florida ASAP! To make the story even crazier, Wilson was in the middle of receiving about 2 inches of snow so flying was out of the question. We both left work and met up at the bank to get the remaining money we still owed. It was a blessing we got there before they closed. We called our parents and texted our friends asking for help as we didn’t have a single baby thing ready to go other than the car seat.
I’m still in awe at how everything unfolded. By the time I got home, we had friends packing up our car for us with everything a newborn would need. God is so good! We hit the road at 6 pm that night and the first hour was horrible. The roads were SO bad and we really had no business being on the road. We took things slow, said a lot of prayers, and Craw drove very carefully. Once we got out of NC, the roads were good.
We drove all night long. The anticipation of knowing we were getting closer and closer to our son was killing me. I couldn’t sleep at all. We arrived at the hospital at 4:45 am Thursday morning. We weren’t supposed to meet our social worker until 9 am so we got some sleep in the car. First time I’ve ever parked and slept in my car. We woke up and made a target run because I needed to freshen up and we wanted to get our baby an outfit.
At 9 am, we walked in to the hospital and waited for our social worker. We assumed we would be taken straight up to see him but as soon as we got there, we were informed he was being transferred to another hospital for further testing on his heart. Talk about a whirlwind. After more waiting, we laid eyes on our son at 11:12 am Thursday, January 18th. Our “gotcha” day.
I will share more of the story in the days to come but for now, please enjoy pictures of our son and our first moments with him.
Camden Ivey Bolton
7 pounds 12 ounces
21.5 inches long
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