A beautiful story of adoption

Our journey started right here… on this very website…

After visiting our local welfare organisation we immediately knew that these were not the people we wanted to walk this very important road with. Knowing very well that gay couples are not any adoption agency’s first choice or that of a biological mother, we decided to put the adoption process on ice.

Almost four years went by and the need to become parents just got stronger. We turned to everyone’s dear friend…Google. In the hope that this would turn up agencies that would consider giving a gay couple a baby. Instead Google led us to this site… Adoptmom.

We were weary in our approach as we got turned away so many times before, because of the fact that we did not meet society’s standards… Man + Woman = Parents. We sent Terri an e-mail asking for her assistance and within hours we set-up a counselling session for the next day. We could not believe how at ease she made us feel. She understood our need to be parents better than anyone else, and within spending only an hour with Terri, we were well informed on how the process will work, what we can expect in costs and which private agency will be able to assist us. We were overcome with joy! Things were finally looking like they were coming together. We will be ever grateful to you Terri! You have become not only a shoulder of support, but a friend.

We got in touch with Procare in Pretoria the very next day and within 24 hours we had our first session booked. We started off with an induction, where our social worker explained to us the procedures, legalities, paperwork and financials in detail. More sessions followed in the following weeks, all of them as interesting as the next. We had the most amazing social worker that ensured we understood the reasons for these sessions and put us at ease by ensuring we knew what to expect.

Our last and final session involved a panel interview. This was the day we were told we would become parents. Unfortunately we could wait anywhere between 2 week to 18 months. The waiting period did not faze us at all. One thing was for certain… We were becoming parents! Our biggest and greatest wish was finally coming true…

I just celebrated my big 3-0 birthday… 29 November to be exact. What happened on the 30^th of November we will never forget, neither the excitement nor the emotions. We received that very important call from our social worker. We had been selected! Our baby boy was born earlier in the month and that we would be meeting him in the February. This was going to be a long and torturous wait, but worth every while! This was after all the biggest birthday gift anyone could ever ask for.

This gave us the necessary time we needed, to move rooms around, start decorating the baby room, arrange 3 baby showers, yes 3, and ensure we had everything in place for our baby boy’s arrival. The excitement was building! We were booking flight tickets to Cape Town, arranging accommodation, packing, unpacking, and packing again. Just to make sure we had everything.

Finally the day arrived… With very little sleep (our first night of many to follow) we met our social worker at the airport on the Sunday morning. Tickets in hand we were beyond excited to meet our son. And not wanting to miss our court date first thing on Monday morning, we decided to fly in the day before. Our social worker kept us busy that entire Sunday with a trip to Franschhoek and Camps Bay, trying to distract our excitement, knowing that we were only hours away from meeting our baby.

Monday morning broke and I will never forget that day’s events. My husband, me and our social worker sat around the breakfast table at the guest house, going over what to expect in court. We tried enjoying the breakfast, trying to subdue the excitement just for a little while longer… With no such luck!!

We arrived at the court. We were shown to a little wooden bench in the corridor of the court, while our social worker finalised all the paperwork. We were in and out of court in 25 minutes.

We arrived at the house of safety where we would be meeting our son. With a lot of effort we patiently waited for the social worker to bring our son through the door of the living room. The door handle turned, the door swung open and in her arms was the cutest, most gorgeous boy… our son. He greeted us with the biggest smile and we greeted him with tears of joy accompanied with smiles, giggles and many, many kisses and hugs.

We had our son and that was all that was important. The rest of the world passed by in a blur as we were returning home with our baby boy. We could not stop starring into each other’s eyes, even as we settled in for our first night as a family.

Thank you to Terri and Procare for your support and guidance. We will forever be grateful to you both!

Lots of love,

The two and a half men  (Red our blog here)