The Call Story

Warning: You are about to read a mini novel. If you only have a few minutes I suggest you come back when you have 20 hours to spare. Seriously.

THANK YOU so much for all the wonderful comments! Your kind words made the celebration that much sweeter. I really appreciate all the love!

I always enjoy reading posts on other blogs with all the details of THE call. So, here is how it all went down. Every other Wednesday at work I have to help process payroll for our tutors. The task can be a bit mind numbing as I have to be careful and focused so that I don’t mess up and enter something incorrectly. It was around 1:30pm and I was totally involved in payroll. I really didn’t think it was possible for me to not be expecting the call. Everyone says the call comes when you aren’t expecting it. However, Damon and I had been sitting at the top of the unofficial list for over a month and I felt like I spent every waking moment staring at my phone. There I was going through a timesheet that had errors on it and I was muttering words of frustration when I heard my phone start to vibrate. I glanced at it and saw the 817 area code. I gasped so loudly that my co-worker across the room looked up at me and asked if it was THE call. I answered it and there was Mary’s voice. I have no idea why but I stood up from my desk and walked down the hallway. I am not sure what compelled me to do this but I did. Mary said something about this being our referral call. I told her that I needed to call Damon and see if he was going to be able to go home so we could be together. Mary asked me if I wanted to know anything so I asked her if it was a boy or girl. I am pretty sure she said something like, “I have a tiny, little boy for you.” That moment right there was one of the best of my life. I am so glad that for our first child we decided to be surprised and not choose the gender. Mary told me how precious he was and I am pretty sure I made some sort of squealing noise. We hung up and I called Damon. Listening to the phone ring and knowing I was getting ready to tell Damon that we had a boy brought on the tears. Damon answered and I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was hopeful it was THE call. I said, “It’s a boy!” I think he laughed and said, “Really?” I remember very clearly telling him to leave work right away. I knew it would take him longer to get home. We were both kind of laughing as I kept saying, “leave now!!” After getting hugs from all my co-workers, I rushed out the door. I am pretty sure I hit every single red light possible on my way home. It was also raining that day so everyone was driving slowly. Something I realized on the drive home was that it was also raining on our wedding day. I like that on this other life changing day it was raining.

When I got home our dog was in complete panic mode. She hates rain and storms so she was running around panting like crazy. We weren’t that different in that moment! I set up the computer and just sat there waiting for Damon to get home. When he walked in the door I yelled at him to get upstairs. I don’t think I gave him a moment to put his bag down or anything. He laughed at me. We called Mary back and she said she was going to send us two emails and the first one would have several photos. Once the photos came through Mary gave us some time to look through them and let me tell you he is truly PRECIOUS! We are not allowed to post photos of him until we officially pass court so you’ll have to take my word on it. He has the sweetest face I have ever seen and his eyes are so alert. Then she sent us all his personal information. From that point on I spent the rest of our call crying. I am going to journal privately about that point in our phone call. I will tell you that my heart has truly never ached in that way. I had read before on other blogs about how the excitement of finally seeing your child’s face is often followed by the intense grief for what they have already experienced. To say that happened to me would be an understatement. Even though Damon was not outwardly expressing grief in the same way I was I could tell he was shaken as well. He reached out to me and put his hand on my back for the remainder of the call. I love him. Mary comforted us as well and assured us that it is normal to grieve and we should allow ourselves that moment. God bless her. I know she has been doing this a long time but she said just the right things.

After we got off the phone with Mary, Damon and I spent some time just the two of us and talked through things. I am really glad we did this. It was unplanned but I highly suggest it to any waiting family. There was the temptation to jump right on the phone and start calling our family and friends but we paused and attempted to take it all in. We talked through his story a bit and decided that it is his story and for the time being we are going to keep it private.

Then the phone calling extravaganza began! My mother and sister both cried and it was great fun hearing their reaction once they saw his photos. My dad texted me later and his text read, “he is sooooooo cute.” I thought that was funny because my dad isn’t one to use the word “soooooo” in his speech so I knew he was feeling the grandpa vibes.

Some of the local adopt-o-dads had previously planned to get together that night for drinks so I called Amy with the news and we decided the girls would be crashing the get together. It was great to share the joy with the other adoptive families that we have relied on so much the past year.

May 12^th, 2010. A momentous day for the Buster family! He is a dream come true and I pray that we are able to bring him home soon.