After we landed in LAX we started to look for rental car places and were told that you just pick a bus outside with a company that says they have available cars and they take you to their counter several miles away from the airport. We chose hertz. I had coupons, but of course they weren't valid there and the lady behind the counter told me that it would be 689.42 for the week.....ummmmm.....how about a night? 119.81 because we wanted to drop the car off closer to where we were staying so there was a drop of fee. Ok, well we need to get where we are going, so we paid the money, walked out to find our teeny tiny Prius and went on our way. GPS in hand we were off to find the Patapoff household!! When we finally got to their street, there was no house with the house number we wrote down, i was getting ready to start knocking on doors when out came this sweet lady, Leslie waving us down. Only God could let her know we were there!!!
Oh Nick and Leslie, they made us feel so welcome and we talked with them for a while, then headed to bed so that we could visit the hospital first thing in the morning to meet our new son!!!
The agency told us to go ahead and go up to the hospital as a social worker was meeting the birth mom at her house to sign papers. So off we went in our 120.00 rental and drove the 30 minutes to the hospital. Took us a bit to get to go back to see our little man who we thought for sure we were naming Landyn.....but when i got back there, a nurse was holding him, he was so tiny, so stinkin' cute!!! I held him for a while and fed him through his g-tube....and in walked a woman that looked at me so harsh I couldn't imagine what was going on. It was Elijahs birth mom......she came in with her cousin and was asking all kinds of questions about his feeding and such. She then left and shortly after her I did as well, I knew David was chomping at the bit to meet his new son.
After David got clearance to go back, Caleb and I went into the waiting room and called our agency to tell them that I saw the baby and how precious he was!! They asked if I was as shocked as they were?!?!?! Why? I asked. Oh you have not heard, mom has changed her mind and wants her cousin to parent. I immediately felt my heart sink and went to get David out of the NICU. When he walked into the waiting room, he knew something was up. I had to tell him but I almost couldn't get the words out. "She changed her mind". The next few hours felt like days as the social worker told us to go get some lunch off campus and she would call us after she talked with the BM and her cousin. Get lunch?? Eat?? We went for a ride to the road where they told us everything was and just kinda sat in the car for a bit, poor Caleb....he wasn't sure what to say...or do.
Finally, after SIX hours the social worker called us and told us that the cousin (who was 22 and had three young kids of her own) realized that she couldn't handle to care that Elijah as going to need. BM had decided to sign.....phew....but my heart just ached for her. Her mom, though not supportive of helping to raise Eli, told her she was going to hell for giving him up, left her at the hospital and told her to take a taxi home (over an hour away for her).
When we returned to the hospital to cuddle our little boy again, we saw BM in the court yards, crying...she was signing all the necessary papers....she had 10 days to change her mind....and we thought six hours was a lot........
UPDATE ON ELIJAH.......(who by the way got his name after David and I both saw him and said "He really looks like an Elijah....God is cool like that :)
He will be having heart surgery either the end of October or beginning of November....we are now raising money for a hotel in Rochester so that I can stay with him those 7-10 days....the hospital does have a Ronald McDonald house but we have been warned that it is near to impossible to get in as the hospital we are going to is very well known and provides a lot of services. If you feel led to donate to our stay in Rochester, you can use the paypal button to your right....in the message section please put either hotel or surgery so the person that is handling our adoption account knows where said money should be applied. Thanks all for your love and prayers.......we are LOVING our life as a family of FOUR!!!
