Andrew's Story

As we are coming closer to adopt our second child I feel a bit 'nostalgic' remembering the first days we adopted Andrew.
Our story starts on October 10th 2007, when we received a call from our agency. The night before we had attended a "101 Baby Necessities Class" where we received a lot of useful information ( I had never changed a diaper before!). I remember seeing all the pregnant women and feeling a little sad, not because I was not pregnant myself, but because they KNEW when they were going to have a baby. I felt ready emotionally and if we needed to wait too long it would have been hard...
Well, as I said we received "the call" the next day. After that everything seemed very surreal. Jason and I met the birthmother and 11 days after that we had a baby at home! So, basically we had 11 days to prepare!! Fortunately we had freed one bedroom during the past Summer, but it was still empty by the time we were matched. So, the night before Andrew was born Jason was putting together the Ikea furniture we bought for the baby room! Everything was ready JUST IN TIME for Andrew to come.
In the next morning we headed to UCI Hospital and Andrew was born at 12:19 pm, with 7.8 pounds and 20.5 inches. He was a beautiful perfect baby who cried passionately for the first two hours of his life!! I remember the Doctor saying "he has good lungs!" We named him Andrew Noah Chevalier ('Noah' was a suggestion of his birthmother).
From there our lives turned upside down. We were ready emotionally as I mentioned before, but the agency had told us to expect a wait of 2 months to 2 years! However our process took 6 weeks, from the time we finished our homestudy to Andrew's birth. So, being teachers we were in the midst of the academic semester and I (Angelis) had to quickly find substitutes for my classes at Mt SAC, so I could be with our newborn baby. In addition, Andrew was a colicky baby, which greatly challenged us in the first months, but that part of the story I will share another time...
As crazy as that time was, I remember it with very warm feelings. Sharing the first days of Andrew's life was SO precious and I will never forget how instantly I bonded to him, which made it so easy to love and care for this little life.
Now we are ready for the adventure again!