Don’t I know you?

Before I continue, I feel compelled to share with you that the birth mother’s name is Tiffany.  Instead of just referring to her as “the birth mother,” I can use her name to help the connection and give you a name to call out in prayer for us.  

Anyway, right after we had the FaceTime session with Tiffany and her boyfriend, I started trying to think of all the things that might go wrong between now and “gotcha day.”  Most of them revolved around Tiffany changing her mind about the choice to put her baby up for adoption, thereby moving us back to square one, forfeiting the money we committed in the process.  

Along that line of thinking, it came to mind how I go about things at work every day.  I would say that in a typical five-day work week, I have to either take or return 15-20 phone calls.  That number fluctuates, but is a fair estimate.  Of those, there are some that, obviously, take priority.  This is especially true in a busy week, or one where things at school don’t permit me to return them as quickly as the person might like.  Priorities to me start with parents of our students, since students and parents are a school’s “clients,” so to speak.  But, those that also take priority are people that I already know, have a history with, or even a baseline connection.  It’s not that I feel obligated to call them back first or for sure, but I either want to call them back as a courtesy or I do so because I know that I should call them back.  I hope that makes sense – it does in my head. 

But, there are calls every week that get pushed to the back burner.  It’s either a random call from someone I don’t know that doesn’t have a student in our school, or someone I know is trying to sell me a product or a service.  They all get called back, eventually, just some may take a few days instead of a few hours.  

Wait, don’t tell me. . .I know you. .

Here’s where I’m going with this.  We want Tiffany to be as comfortable with her decision as she possibly can.  When the day(s) in the hospital come, regardless of what that looks like, we want her to have no problems sending the baby home with us, signing off on the final paperwork, and sleeping at night knowing she has made the right decision.  To do that, we can’t be some random phone call.  We need to be, as much as possible living 1,500 miles away, someone that she has gotten to know and trust.  

So, we called our case worker in Arizona and asked if the possibility existed of us getting to do the FaceTime thing more often with Tiffany.  We wanted to forge that relationship with her, so that she got to know Jaclyn and me much better, hopefully helping her if nervousness arises later on.  

That’s the real reason for today’s update.  This afternoon, at 4:00 central time, Jaclyn will be doing just that with Tiffany.  Please pray for their conversation to be a smooth one, and for her to become more comfortable with each visit with us as the days and weeks pass.  This may only be something that happens 2-3 times before the birth, but each time is valuable in the process, we think.  And, continue to pray that our thoughts will not be consumed with the “what might happen,” but rather with preparations and decisions for bringing home our son within the next six weeks.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.”  II Timothy 1:7