A tissue warning is advised if you care to read. I needed them as I wrote the Reader's Digest condensed version of our story........(buckifan said I should put the tissue warning in bold red letters, so I'm taking her advice).........
.......we were married about two years and decided to try to start a family. After 4 months of trying we found out that we were expecting our first child the following May. The day before my 22nd birthday in April 1977, Hazel went into labor and off to the hospital we went. Upon having an exam, the nurse asked Hazel the last time she felt life. We were young, caught up in the moment not thinking anything of the question. A short while later I was told that I could go into the changing room to get ready as Hazel would be going into delivery very soon. When I came out, Hazel was already moved to the delivery room and I was told I couldn't go in due to complications. The next words I share were words that I will never forget and are eched in my memory forever. I heard Hazel ask if the baby was OK, the nurse replied, "The baby is dead." The doctor arrived a few minutes after Kristen was delivered, and I had the task of telling my in-laws the news, as they were in the Father's Waiting Room. My mom and step-dad arrived at the hospital a few minutes later.
We tried again and again for another child, but to no avail. We went through years of fertility treatments, and finally the fertility specialist gave us a 1/2 of 1% chance of ever having another biological child. After hearing this news, we finally gave up on all fertility treatments and put everything in God's hands. We decided if He wanted us to have a child, then He would provide it.
In 1988 were we contacted about a young girl who was 6 months pregnant and was asked if we would be interested in adopting her child after it was born. We went through the last 3 months of the pregnancy with her. In February 1989 a baby girl was born as Hazel and I sat in the Father's Waiting Room (the same Father's Waiting Room I was in 12 years earlier), only to be told that the child had less than a 20% chance of survival. The baby girl was rushed to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and we didn't know if we would ever get the chance to see her. After three long days of testing on the baby, and with the birth mother's permission, we were allowed to visit our daughter. We met with the doctors and were advised it did not look good for our daughter. We found out that she was born with a form of dwarfism. The birth mother let us name our baby Barbara Jean(BJ). BJ fought long and hard, had a major surgery, an infection set in, and within a month she lost her battle and died a few days after Mother's Day 1989. The birth mother allowed us to bury BJ next to our daughter Kristen. The entire time BJ was at CHOP, the birth mother only came twice, once to sign for the surgery, the second to remove BJ from life support, other than that, Hazel and I took care of all of BJ's needs. We made daily visits to the hospital for the 12 weeks she was there.
On September 16, 1990 we received a call about a baby girl that was born the night before in Oaxaca, Mexico and were asked if we would be interested in adopting her. After 7 months, and 4 trips to Mexico we were finally able to bring Angelina home with us, and she has been the apple of her daddy's eye ever since, even when she drives me up a wall.
I don't know why I felt the need to share this, but it helps with my healing even after all these years.
