Four Years Ago - Part One

FOUR YEARS AGO TODAY

by Beverly Whitaker

Four years ago today, it was a Friday.

Four years ago today, I worked a full-time job.

Four years ago today, I came home from work, from an ordinary day.

Four years ago today, I listened to a voice mail.

A voice mail that changed my life.

Four years ago today, I learned that my daughter would be born.

Four years ago today, I learned her birth date.

Four years ago today, I started packing suitcases.

Four years ago today, I dreaded the next day,

Knowing that I would have to tell my co-workers I was quitting my job.

Four years ago today, my journey to motherhood was just about to start.

Four years ago today, the reality of her was still hard to grasp.

Four years ago today the excitement was electric.

Four years ago today was a Friday.

And I had no idea how much my life would change or how big my heart was going to grow.

On Friday, August 27, 2004, I came home from work and heard a voice mail from my daughter's birthmom, letting me know that in five days, Hannah would arrive.

Thus began a whirlwind of activity, packing of suitcases, giving notice at my job, training my replacement (in one day!!) working Saturday and Sunday alone in my office, sticking post-it notes on everything and trying to get as much completed as I could.

Soon it was Tuesday and my husband, dog, mom and dad and I were headed to another state to be there for the sure arrival of our "hoped for" daughter the following day. It was a drive full of emotion, there was joy, excitement, terror, love, sadness for her birthmom and her family, some dread that the adoption would not go through as planned, just lots of different things went through our minds on the nine hour trip.

The memories are sweet today, I can look and see God's hand prints on it all - if only I could have seen it then, maybe my heart would not have raced so through every inch of that highway.

Part Two - coming soon.

Beverly