A Different Experience

It's hard for me to find the words to blog today. Just to give you an idea, when we left the meeting and got in the car, I let out a very loud sigh. It was really stressful. As Sean puts it..."the sh*t was crazy!"
We were about 15 minutes late for the meeting because of traffic and Mary gave me the wrong building number. So we spent 10 minutes looking for a building that didn't exist. That's what started all the stress. We finally found the building and Mary was waiting for us in the lobby. I was so happy to see her. She brought us in to meet Doreen (Jenny's counselor), Jenny, and her parents. I gave Jenny a bouquet of tulips (which were starting to wilt in the car so I was slightly embarrassed.) They liked them though.
Doreen and Mary moderated the entire meeting which was so helpful. Mary did the best job representing Sean and I - I was so happy with her. She is a tough cookie and for any doubts I ever had about her competence, those doubts were flushed away with her performance last night.
Within the first five minutes, we found out Jenny is having a boy. That was pretty exciting to find out.
We were in the meeting for 2 hours. Mary had originally told us it would be no longer than an hour but Sean and I said to ourselves we couldn't see these meetings only going an hour. There is too much to cover!
Long story short, there were comfortable times of the meeting and also uncomfortable times. There were times I wanted to come out of my skin.
I know they liked us very much. I think I heard them say they already met the other adoptive family and that they had a child already (named Jeremiah which they weren't too psyched about.) My gut tells me they want this to work and ideally this is a good situation for us. But there are a few sticking points where we would need to come to an agreement to move forward.
The positive things coming out of the meeting:
1) They LOVED our profile. They think we are outgoing and active which they would like for this child.
2) At the end of the meeting, Jenny's dad said, "Desiree and Sean, I just want to tell you that you both are a wonderful couple, have so much to offer, and any birthfamily would be so lucky to have you as an adoptive family." (That almost made me cry.)
3) Jenny's cute. She's mature for her age and we were very impressed with that.

And obviously there are more good things too. I gave Jenny a card at the end so she would have something to take home with her. We left with Mary and she said she will call us on Monday after they've had the weekend to process everything. She told us not to be so good in these meetings. She said she wanted to have a baby and choose us as the adoptive parents! I thought that was funny. (Especially since Mary is probably in her late 60's/early 70's.) I have a very vivid imagination.
Sean and I went to Chili's afterwards and for those who know us well...you know the first thing we did when we got there. We talked over dinner and laughed at some things from the meeting. I said to Sean, "no matter what weird situation we are ever in, he always finds a way to pull out the funny stuff and make me laugh."
We are still stressed today so I think we are going to take Lucy for a long walk, maybe do a little yoga, and basically be on a retreat from the outside world this weekend so we can think things through. There is a lot of data in our heads that we are still processing. It's really crazy.
Thanks for all the emails, voice mails and messages everyone has left for us. They told us one of the main things that stuck out from our profile is that we surround ourselves with a tight group of friends and family so they know our child will be loved. So thank you, thank you! You've all helped our profile stand out and contributed in a birthfamily's decision to choose us.
XOXO
Sean and Des