Getting THE CALL
So… turns out that Kevin and I have a bad habit of ignoring THE CALL when it comes to our adoptions. With Kate, we didn’t ignore it, we just missed it. That was back in the days of people calling land lines and I was on a lunch break at work when the call came in. Our adoption worker left a voicemail and I called her back the minute I heard it!
But with Karsten and with Kallen…. we just flat out ignored them! Oops. With the number of telemarketers these days, can you really blame us for not answering a number that we didn’t know? Anyway, let me back up from the beginning.
October 13th was a normal Tuesday for us. We both went to work, came home, finished homework with the girls, ate dinner, gave them baths and tucked them in bed. Then Kevin and I sat down on the couch to watch the Braves play (and win!) in the playoff game against the LA Dodgers. Around 10:30 that night, Kevin’s phone rang. He looked at it and it was a number that he didn’t recognize. So like all normal people, he ignored it. About 5 minutes later it buzzed that the caller had left a voicemail. He listened to it, and I could see from across the room his eyes getting really big. When he hung up he looked at me and said “Kelley. That was THE CALL. They called you first and then I ignored it. There is a baby boy already born and we were chosen.”
Honestly, I didn’t even believe him at first. I said “No way! You are joking.” Then I looked at my phone and sure enough, I’d missed a call too. My phone was literally sitting right beside me all night, but since it was so late, my phone didn’t ring. I set my phone to silent after 10:30 at night, unless someone calls 2x in a row (then it would ring).
The voicemail that our adoption worker left Kevin went something like this:
Kevin and Kelley. This is Becky* (name changed). A birth mom has identified your family for potential placement of a baby boy, who was born about a day ago. Please call me back so we can discuss the details to determine if this is a match you would like to move forward with. I know it is late but you can call me until about 11:30 tonight. Talk to you soon!
Of course I made Kevin replay the message on speaker phone so I could hear it. We both looked at each other like “Oh my goodness.” and then called Becky to find out the details.
After a brief phone call with Becky to get more information, we told her we would call her back in the morning to confirm whether we wanted to move forward with the match or not. In some ways there was a lot to think about, in other ways there wasn’t anything to think about at all. The next morning we called her back and made arrangements to go get Kallen!
It’s funny – Kevin and I never DREAMED that we would be getting a phone call about a baby that had already been born. In the adoption world, these types of situations are called “stork drops” because it’s like a stork just drops a baby into your arms. That was exactly what happened with Karsten, and so we (incorrectly) assumed that it would NEVER happen to us again. We thought we would be matched at some point prior to the baby’s birth, and that we would have time to prepare.
Silly us to every think we have things all figured out.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.– Isaiah 55:8-9
