Certainly Not Me - now with added clarification

Did I tell you that we were approached about a newborn a while back?

I got the call while we were in Gettysburg in early November.

A teenage acquaintance of one of my friends found herself pregnant and had no desire to raise the baby.

It was a brief, fact-finding, “Are you interested?” call.

I said that we would be.

And that was about it.

I didn’t really give it any more thought.

Those calls come in about once a year or so, if you’re publicly trying to build your family through adoption.

Nothing ever comes of them.

Then a few weeks ago, I got a more urgent call.

This girl was in an unbelievably heartbreaking situation – adamant that she want to place her child for adoption yet being challenged by a family member who, while unable to safely keep/raise a child, would not support her decision and beyond that, was threatening her.

I was told to contact an attorney right away. To get answers to some very specific questions.

She wanted to meet us and time was of the essence.

The baby was due in about a month.

I literally spent an entire day on the phone.

Getting legal advice for her and for us.

Getting information on free legal services for her.

Getting information on places she could stay if she was thrown out of her home.

Getting information on free medical care.

Getting information on organizations that would drive her to and from doctor’s appointments.

Getting information on religious organizations that would support her in the days and weeks after the birth.

Whether she chose to keep the baby or not.

I even contacted our caseworker about the possibility of her (the birthmom) entering foster care in the event that she was thrown out of her home with no place to go. As licensed foster parents, I wanted to see if it was possible to move her in with us so we could support her through the rest of her pregnancy and help teach her how to care for her baby.

Throughout, I vowed not to get my hopes up.

I wouldn’t even consider that this situation would end with us having a child in our home and in our arms.  

I just wanted to support her, if only from afar.

I almost, almost made it.

And then one morning as I was waking up, a beautiful little girl’s name just popped into my head.

I was sunk.

Hope had reared its’ ugly head.

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you’ll be able to guess what happened next.

Cue the ringing phone just a few hours later.

A brief call from my friend the gist of which was basically . . .

“Never mind.”

 Birth mom had moved in with birth dad.

And that was that.

There was vague mention of seeing how things unfolded as the situation was pretty tenuous.

But I’ve never heard another word.

Baby girl should be here in about a week if she arrives on her due date.

Or maybe she’s already weeks old.

Who knows?

Certainly not me.*
____________________________________________________
*This is in no way meant to imply that I'm upset with my friend for not keeping me "in the loop" on the day-to-day developments of birthmom's very tenuous situation. I have no NEED to know anymore, unfortunately. Any updates would have just kept me emotionally tied to a situation that clearly isn't going to unfold as I had hoped. That would have been torture.