Everything else in our journey to adopt Jayden came slowly and took forever – with the exception of our travel call. Only a week and a half after we received “the call” that our case was done, we received an email giving us the dates to go to Guatemala to meet and bring home our precious bundle of joy.
I just sat there for several minutes and stared at the computer. It was Wednesday and we would meet our son on Sunday. In four days I would be a mother. Was I ready for this? Before I knew it, those days had passed and my husband and I were rising at the crack of dawn to board a plane to Guatemala. The excitement just surged through me and I still couldn’t believe this was actually happening. After a year and a half of waiting we were finally going to get our son. I kept thinking, “the next time I touch U.S. soil Jayden will be in my arms”. Wow. What an awesome thought.
We landed in Guatemala, navigated customs and made it to our hotel. Then the waiting began again. We had several hours until Jayden would be brought to us. I couldn’t sit still and kept leaving the hotel room to stand on the balcony that looked down to the lobby of the hotel. I saw a little boy about his age and felt my heart leap, but then realized it wasn’t him. Finally about an hour later, I saw him. Jayden, our son, the answer to thousands of prayers, was there in the same building with us. I looked down over the balcony and down in the lobby was our tiny answer to prayer – determinedly walking across the intricately tiled floor, hands raised to clutch his foster brother’s fingers. I took a deep breath and said “this is it” as we took our final steps as a couple and approached our first moments as a family.