Mel and I had been certified foster parents for about three years and praying constantly for a newborn baby to be placed in our home with the hopes of adopting. Every time we got a call from our child placement agency we would start praying about that baby, and we were very specific that we only wanted a baby that would be ours forever. We had two couples in our church whom we would call every time we got a call, and they would also pray specifically for that with us.
When Nicole and I got home from school, we had an urgent message to call our child placement agency. They had a placement and wanted to know if we would be interested. I called them right away and our caseworker Cheryl told us about a baby boy who had been born early that morning to a mom that was addicted to drugs, was on parole, had already lost custody of two other children and was most likely going back to prison since she had tested positive for cocaine and marijuana when she delivered the baby she named Dustin. I was so excited but tried to keep it low key for Nicole's sake. I didn't want her to get her hopes up in case it didn't turn out. I called Mel and our prayer friends and we all started praying.
Five o'clock came and went with no call from the state social worker. Nicole and I went to have dinner with my parents. When we got home, there was a message on our phone from the state social worker Melissa. She wanted me to call her on her cell phone. When I called her, she told me that the court order had already been signed for "Dustin" to be placed in the state's custody. She assured me since it was a Friday that nothing would happen until at least Monday, but as far as she knew Dustin would be coming home from the hospital to our home.
That night I decided I better get a few supplies in, just in case this was for real. I still hadn't told Nicole, but off we went to the store to buy some lotion, wipes, diapers, just the bare necessities. Pretty soon Nicole wondered by I would be buying baby supplies. I finally told her that there was just a slight possibility we might be getting a baby. When we got home, I decided I would go ahead and take down the bunk beds we had in our spare bedroom and set up the crib. Mel kept calling to see what I knew. We were so excited, but still guarded, about this baby. The circumstances surrounding his birth and his biological mother seemed to be in our favor.
Sunday morning Nicole and I were getting ready for church when the phone rang. It was Dustin's social worker calling to tell me that the doctor taking care of him in the hospital had called her and told her that even though he was very small (4 lbs 6 ounces), he was very healthy and needed to be placed in a home as soon as possible so he could start bonding. She was calling to tell me she would be at our house a little after noon with "our" baby. When I got off the phone and told Nicole she dropped to her knees with tears streaming down her little face and just kept repeating "Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus". Nicole had longed for a baby brother or sister since she was four years old.
Now that we knew Dustin was coming home to us we hit the store big time buying baby boy outfits, tiny diapers, bottles, pacifiers, everything we could think of, and then we went home and started the longest wait of our lives.
It started to snow and I prayed for Melissa to have safe travel picking Dustin up from the hospital and traveling to our house. It seemed like forever. As soon as I saw a car in the driveway, I went flying out the door to meet Melissa and help her get everything in the house. She gave me the baby in his car seat. It was so light I was afraid she had forgotten the baby. When we got in the house, Nicole was just dying to see him. The nurses at the little hospital were he was born had gone to the Family Dollar store, the only store in the town he was born, and bought him a little green t-shirt, a little pair of green pants, some booties and Melissa had bought him two Winnie the Pooh blankets.
When we unwrapped him, I just started to cry. It felt just like it had when Nicole had been placed in my arms for the first time. I couldn't wait for Melissa to leave. As soon as she did, Nicole and I undressed him, counted all his fingers and toes. He was so tiny. His legs were so scrawny, just skin and bones. We changed his diaper and got him changed into one of the new outfits we had bought him. He had a fuzzy little head with red hair on it. We took pictures on my cell phone to send to Mel and called him and told him our baby was home. We called him peanut because he was so tiny. He would be three weeks old before his daddy got to see him. I have to say I was kind of glad because I got to just have him all to myself, or so I thought. I hadn't taken "Little Momma" into account when I had those visions.
As soon as we got him dressed up, we loaded him in the car to take him to meet my parents. They could not believe how tiny he was and how precious he was. We all took turns holding him. Nicole sat in her little wooden rocking chair and rocked him and sang to him. What a glorious day.
Mel and I were always in such awe that out of all the parents in the world who can't have a baby of their own for whatever reason and waited so long for a newborn baby, and out of all those parents God chose us to be Daniel's parents. We were so tremendously blessed. Our family was now complete.
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