We Journeyed for Miles

I am so thrilled to announce the arrival of our son Miles Benjamin, who was added to our family a week ago.  

After our long journey to this point, we weren’t sure how much longer we would be awaiting a match on our domestic newborn adoption. We even began paperwork with a new agency last weekend, and hadn’t submitted anything when all of a sudden we received the telephone call on Monday morning that changed our lives.

We heard from the first adoption agency we had been working with that a little boy had been born on Saturday morning (his mother delivered him on the hood of a car!) and would be available for adoption. Initially the birthmother was going to leave him at the hospital, but the hospital had called our agency and they discussed the idea of arranging semi-open adoption with us so she could receive future photos and updates about her son and have the option to meet him later in life.

It seems the birthmother already had a one-year-old son at home (whose father is involved in his life), and had become pregnant with the one we adopted with a different birthfather. He was not involved in her pregnancy and didn’t seem to be providing her the support she would need to parent this child.

She first felt contractions while en route from one state to another (we adopted Miles before she made it to the next state). A friend and that friend’s boyfriend were calling an ambulance to get her to the hospital when she went into labor. The boyfriend helped deliver the baby on the hood of the car, and an ambulance brought them to   the hospital. Other than being a bit small and cold, this little baby was just perfect.

We had the intention of naming our son Miles to symbolize the journey we had taken to become his parents. When we found out about his delivery on the car it seemed even more fitting.

We slept very little while arranging our trip to come meet him, and ran around getting things done for our adoption—securing FBI clearance and flights—and flew the next night after he was born.

Now that he is our son, we also have had very little sleep. This is the type of sleep deprivation we have wanted so it seems blissful. My husband is napping as I type this to try to stay with our son’s rhythm of sleep patterns. I napped for a bit and have been too excited to sleep otherwise. I can’t stop looking at our little Miles!

Tags: domestic adoption, failed adoption, newborn, u.s. adoption, welcome home

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