I have asked permission from our birth mother (Ruth) to use her name and her picture and she has agreed. She even said she would add her side to this story!
More to come on that!
Cole (8 months old) kept bouncing on Mykel’s knees and his dark brown eyes wouldn’t leave Mykel’s face. Cole would occasionally look at me and smile and then look back at Mykel (at that time Cole’s name was Michael, or Mikey, but we later changed his name). Bryan sat quietly at my side and then would get up, go get a book or a toy and come back and sit down.
Oh how I longed to hold him!
Here is a picture of Cole (Mikey) and Bryan a few days after we met them.
We spent about an hour visiting with Ruth and the boys and luckily our attorney kept the conversation moving. I was so nervous, I mean,
what do you say to someone who could possibly be giving you your entire future? I just smiled and smiled while secretly sweating to death (good thing it was winter and I had a few layers on!)
At this point I need to make a confession… between the time that my dad told me about Ruth and the time we met her, I found out where Cole and Bryan would go during the day and
I found a reason to go there to get a peek at the boys, I just couldn’t help myself!
I just happened to drive up at the same time they were getting out of their car. It was freezing cold outside and Cole was wrapped in a white and green checkered snowsuit with a furry hood, and his black eyes saw me getting out of my car (Bryan had already ran into the house). I had to walk past he and Ruth to get to the front door
(I did bring something to drop off so I wouldn’t look like I was just coming there to see the boys!).Later my attorney told me “he is the cutest baby I have ever seen” and he was right. He had a perfectly round little face with dark black eyes that could see right through you.
Cole loves me to tell him about the first time I saw him, it is one of his favorite stories.
Since we met with them a few days before Christmas I asked our attorney if it would be okay if we bought them some presents. I didn’t want it to seem like a bribe or anything; I just wanted to shop for children’s Christmas presents! We debated whether we should give them anonymously, but our attorney thought it would be okay to just let them know they were from us.
So Mykel and I went shopping! I bought a maternity shirt for Ruth and I honestly had no idea what else to get, I only remember getting that. We had fun buying trucks, treats, toys and mini M&M’s for their stockings.
I spent the next day wrapping presents and trying to keep busy so I wouldn’t think about things. I spent Christmas morning imagining Cole and Bryan opening their presents and wondering if they liked them. (Ruth told me later that Cole found the mini M&M’s and before they knew it, he had opened them and stuffed them all in his mouth…to this day Cole loves CHOCOLATE!)
On December 26th, our attorney called us and asked “would you like to adopt all three boys?” WOW! My heart almost stopped beating and again, I instantly said YES before even consulting my husband (in all honesty we had talked about it and I knew he would be okay with it). Since it was the day after Christmas (Friday evening) and several of our family members were home for the holidays, I asked our attorney it he would call Ruth and see if it would be okay for us to take Cole and Bryan for the weekend. I have no idea why I even asked this, but they agreed and we set up a time for us to go and pick them up.
Bryan even came to Cole’s first birthday party in April even though he lived with Ruth at the time (Ruth and I talked quite often and went out to lunch, so it wasn't weird that Bryan came, he was just a natural extension of our little family).