Stacie Rothwell

Dr. Donald Stinson

English 1113

2/15/2021

609 Days

It was mid-day on July 20, 2018, he was only ten days old. The first time I saw him, and my

heart melted as I looked down at his tiny frail body. His social worker went over the medical

history of him and bio-mother. I picked him up out of his car seat and held him close to my chest

slowly touching his face. I was scared as I held him wondering if this will be the child we get to

adopt. I had been through this before getting close to a child then the child leaves to returns

home. I always wanted to adopt, giving a child a second chance at life. Little did I know 609

days from now my wish to adopt was coming true. This baby boy would change our lives.

As I watch him grow over the months, cooing, smiling, and becoming a little person. I hold him

closer to my heart, there is something inside of me that blocks my heart from opening to loving

him. I am afraid to lose him. I am not the one who gave him life, but I am the one who is trying

to fight to keep him as my own. Six months goes by when we are to appear to court. Bio-mother

is ordered one hour of super vision visit once a week. I began to worry. The first visit with his

bio-mother, and she is a no show to the visit. A part of me was relived. I truly did not want to sit

in a room with bio-mother asking him about when she should have been part of his life from the

beginning. As the weeks go on, she continues not to show for visits. This made it so much easier

for us as a family because we got to be a family with him.

It is the middle of June his birthday is coming up; we are getting things together. We ask a

family friend to take some smash cake pictures and family pictures for us to have at this party.

As I am preparing for the birthday party. I received a phone call from his social worker; I am told

that bio-mother has reached out. She would like to set up a visit with him. I was so mad; how

could she get to just call out of nowhere and ask to see him. That is not fair. Not fair for him or

my family. She had not seen him in a year, and she got to call to say she would like to see him.

Of course, I must agree to let her see him no matter how much it hurts. In my eyes he is ours. We

are so close to termination of rights in a few months all because she has not been around. Visit

day; bio-mother shows up to the visit, asked questions just as I expected. She begins to love him,

giving him kisses, telling him that he would be coming to her house soon. I sat there screaming

in my head; Oh no he is not coming to your house, get your hands off my baby boy. I wanted to

take him and run. As the visit ended, she asked to see him again. His social worker set a date

every Wednesday if she would show. And she did for the next three weeks I had to sit there

watching her love for him. He is just over one year, when she stops showing again to visit.

Things are looking good in our favor for the adoption process to start.

A few months go by, and it is time for court. This time at court termination of rights will be

decided. I am a nervous reck. I have been wanting this for so long. I felt like this day was a long

time coming. As we wait in the hall to be called into court, I continue to look around the

courthouse making sure bio-mother does not show. There are so many people at the courthouse

waiting to hear how someone else is getting to decide their fate. When his name is called, I

nervously grab our things and walk into the courtroom. There stands our fate in someone else’s

hands. I sit and listen to what is being said as my eyes start to tear, my son whispers mom is

happy tears or sad. Happy I tell him. Then we are dismissed from the courtroom. The social
worker follows us out, to make sure we understood what was said in the courtroom. We said yes,

we understood. Termination of rights for bio-mother and father. That night when I lay him down

for the night, I hold him tightly thanking my God for choosing us to be his parents.

Finally, he will be our son; just as he always has been in our hearts. A court date was set for

adoption. We meet and talk with so many new people involved in the adoption. Filling out

paperwork, making sure we understand what all intel with adoption. We are coming up on the

day of adoption. I got a phone call from his adoption work telling us we were asked to move the

date of adoption because paperwork did not get entered the computer system. So here it is two

weeks before and now we are to wait three more weeks from the date that the adoption was set.

As the weeks go on, we start to hear about covid 19. Wondering what covid 19 is, how could it

affect the adoption. We received a call from his social worker asking if we would like to move

the date so that family and friends could attend; No, we would like to keep our date of adoption I

tell her. She agrees that the date should stay, we had been waiting and wanting this day to happen

for so long that family and friends could celebrate a later date with us. 609 days (about 1 year 8

months) of him living in our home, growing in our hearts, and we gave him our last name.