The married couple waited patiently for the date that would forever change them. They arrived in California several days before the due date. It was mid-October in the San Joaquin Valley and the heat was just starting to dissipate. The schedule day came and went, and the waiting went on. After 12 days spent waiting, the husband was being called back to his job in sales. He left his wife to wait for the baby, promising to come back as soon as it was time. Two days after the husband left, the girl went into labor while out at lunch with her mother and the wife.
I entered this world quickly and without complication. The doctor immediately handed my new body to the wife so she could cut the umbilical cord. She glanced nervously to the girl in the hospital bed and placed me in her arms (I like to think that I can still recall this feeling, perhaps some instinctual part of me does). I immediately attempted to latch on to the girl's breast, eager for my first meal in this world, but a nurse pulled me away knowing that it would only complicate things. The wife eagerly waited her husband's arrival - he was getting on the first flight he could find. Four hours after my birth, he stumbled into the hospital room with bloodshot eyes - his wife handed him his newly adopted daughter and he kissed my cheek with vodka on his breath.
I spent the first night of my life in the hospital, as my birth mother said her silent goodbyes. My new adoptive parents would be taking me on my first road trip the next day - I wouldn't see my birth mother again for 18 years.
I entered this world quickly and without complication. The doctor immediately handed my new body to the wife so she could cut the umbilical cord. She glanced nervously to the girl in the hospital bed and placed me in her arms (I like to think that I can still recall this feeling, perhaps some instinctual part of me does). I immediately attempted to latch on to the girl's breast, eager for my first meal in this world, but a nurse pulled me away knowing that it would only complicate things. The wife eagerly waited her husband's arrival - he was getting on the first flight he could find. Four hours after my birth, he stumbled into the hospital room with bloodshot eyes - his wife handed him his newly adopted daughter and he kissed my cheek with vodka on his breath.
I spent the first night of my life in the hospital, as my birth mother said her silent goodbyes. My new adoptive parents would be taking me on my first road trip the next day - I wouldn't see my birth mother again for 18 years.