We Got the Call!

One week ago today, we were wandering around a tot swap for the first time, rifling through piles of receiving blankets, inspecting bottle warmers, exclaiming over diaper genies, and avoiding the aisles and aisles of baby and toddler clothes. One week ago today, we were learning how to snap in and snap out baby carriers to and from strollers and fold up said strollers one-handed. One week ago today, we were staring in awe at the shelf space devoted to diaper bags. One week ago today, we were calling a woman we’d never met to doublecheck what formula we should buy. Why? Because two days prior to that, our social worker called to tell us we had a baby boy to take home.

They say you can never be fully prepared for that call. And they’re right. We’d been told many times exactly how it would all go down. We’d get a call on a Thursday or Friday and by Monday, we’d be parents. We knew that’s how it would happen. And then the call came. And it all started happening. And it was completely surreal. The funny part was, we had been complaining only days before about how long the process was taking. We’d been waiting four-and-a-half months! Were we ever going to be parents?!

The even funnier part was we both went to work the next day. After all, we weren’t picking up our son until Monday. We figured we’d just be sitting home twiddling our fingers all day if we didn’t go in. Yeah. That was the most unproductive day of work ever. I had so many things to do…and couldn’t focus on any of them. I had a registry to put together. I had a pediatrician to call. I had a blog post to edit and an e-newsletter story to write. I had friends to call and colleagues to tell. I had a lot to do! I was overwhelmed and excited and terrified. And completely useless. I had finally decided I’d go home early, and then I realized I really did have a few things I needed to tie up since I wasn’t going to be at work for a while.

That Friday night, we went to a concert. Because that’s what DINKs do the last Friday night of DINKdom, right?

And then the next day, we started shopping. I had a short list of the basics we had to have for the first week, thanks to input from colleagues and friends. We made decisions in a few hours that many parents research for weeks. By the end of the day, we didn’t have much (disappointing little, in fact, given that we’d been shopping for six hours), but we had enough. We knew we could take our baby home.