A Third Visit

Again, two weeks after our second visit together, Stewart and I made plans to visit our birth mother in NYC.  This time we road tripped with one of my co-workers and her husband, and their puppy.  We left super early Saturday morning in their van.  Their reason for driving to NYC was to drop the puppy at the airport to travel to his new home in eastern Europe.  They breed puppies (Swiss Mountain Dogs) and they sold one to someone in some country that I can't think of right now. 

We got a bit lost but once we were in the city, we had them drop us off and we navigated our way to the hotel we booked down town.  Miracle of miracles, the room I booked online for $150 which is a steal for the neighborhood we were in, even for a tiny room, was upgraded to a two bedroom suite for the same price.  It was pretty sweet and probably the biggest room I've ever had in NYC for the least cost.

Hotel room aside, the trip was really good too.  One of the main reasons for us to make this third visit was so that we could meet her family who had some concerns about the adoption and while she was of age to place her baby without their permission, we were willing to stay in contact with her family so they could see updates on Gavin as he grows up.  But due to circumstances this visit didn't happen and in hindsight I'm glad to have avoided the awkwardness that would have been present.

So instead we took her shopping and just spent more time with our birth mother.  She was very pregnant and uncomfortable and it was weird to see the baby inside her move.  She asked us what we wanted to name the baby because she wanted that to be the name she would give him in the hospital so that he wouldn't have two names.  I think she also asked us to have him baptized in the Catholic Church.

We all went to church again together on Sunday before Stewart and I took the train home to Buffalo again.  At this point I started to worry that she would be the first woman to be forever pregnant.  Would she ever have this baby?  Would something go wrong to keep us from bringing this baby home?

At this point, and SPOILER, it's weird to think that there was a time when Gavin was anything but 100% ours.  He now will reply to my "Love you, Gavin" with an "I love you too, Mama" and that's pretty much the best thing ever.

Next up, he almost wasn't ours.  I still get worked up when I think about the two weeks that followed our third and final visit with Gavin's pregnant birth mother.