We get out of bed at 3:15am, not much reason to lie there anymore anyways. We finish packing the final items and wait for our friends the Hoverson’s to pick us up and take us to the airport. I’m not looking forward to the flight, but realize there’s little choice. We were 2 of about only 30 people on the entire plane. It made it quite nice to fly for everyone to have their own row! We arrived in Houston about 10:30am. We’ve got about 3 hours before our flight to Jackson, so we can relax for a few hours—maybe catch a nap! LaDonna checks in with our attorney in Baton Rouge, LA and let him know when we’ll be able to get there. He quickly says, “why are you flying to Jackson, MI? The drive to Lafayette from Houston is closer than Jackson?” Really? Ok then—the “amazing race” feel for this trip begins again! We call Southwest Airlines and cancel the connecting flight to Jackson, then race down to their baggage claim department to get our bags before they ship them to Jackson! LaDonna goes to work on that, while I try to secure a car to drive to Lafayette. The ladies at baggage claim in Houston aren’t very helpful, until LaDonna tells them why we are getting our bags—then they snap into action, barking orders through their walkie talkies to “get these bags, because these people are adopting a baby and need to get to LA today!” LaDonna promises to that she will bring the baby to see them on our way home. After bartering with a few different car rental companies, AVIS wins and we’re off to Lafayette in our leather-trimmed Hyundai Sonata (not to shabby!). The drive goes very well; we’re actually enjoying just seeing a different part of the country. We arrive at the Women’s and Children’s hospital around 3:30pm in Lafayette (the attorney saved us at least 4 hours of travel time!). We page the social worker Leslie who escorts us to the room where Mark, his birth mother, grandmother, aunt, sister (who’s 5), and cousin (who’s 1). LaDonna and the birth mother Jonique hug immediately and there he is…..in that little clear plastic crib. It’s an amazing moment. We talk with Jonique for an hour or more and exchange information. We make plans to get together while we’re in town. The nurses have a few more discharge things to do. All the hospital staff is wonderful to us and we are surprised how easy it’s been to interact with the Jonique and her family. Apparently, they are all fully supportive of her adoption plan. We hug again, say goodbyes and Jonique leaves the hospital while Leslie escorts us to another room where we can just be with the baby for a while. We have to feed and change his diaper, etc…before they’ll discharge us. We have a great nurse Lacie who seems incredibly excited that we’ve adopted this little boy. We simply love it – it’s just the 3 of us in a nice quiet room. Any other time it would have been the most boring room to sit in and just stare; but today, we’re staring at our child. Our child! It seems surreal that yesterday we were in Phoenix at work/home and the next afternoon, were in Lafayette, LA holding our son! Around 6pm they are ready to discharge us and I leave to go pull the car up front. When I get back, LaDonna is in a wheelchair in the nursery with a lot of staff around her while she holds Mark. Apparently, while I was gone, a black male approached our nurse Lacie outside the nursery and wanted to see Jonique’s baby. Lacie told him, I don’t know who you are but I can’t give you any information. He appears frustrated, looks through the glass to see if he can see a child that has the correct last name, but since Mark is in LaDonna’s arms, he can’t find him and leaves. Hospital security is called and eventually the hospital QC and attorney persons also arrive to decide if the child can be discharged to us. This entire process takes another 2.5 hours—but we must say that the staff, all the staff, is very supportive and gracious to us (something we saw often, that great southern hospitality that’s missing in so much of America). LaDonna and I have now been up for nearly 40 hours and this new stress has energized us (amazing what adrenaline can do). Finally around 9:30pm we are allowed to leave to go to the hotel. Hospital security escorts us out a back exit in case that person is still around somewhere. We check into our Extended Stay hotel room and for the first time, breathe a momentary sigh. Mark during all of this was completely unaware, asleep and content. God knew we would need a good sleeper & eater with all that we were about to endure. I’m not sure what time we went to bed, but I was glad to finally lie down (after Mark was fed of course!). That was Thursday!
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